'Sarpedon to all squads.’ he voxed. 'Break formation and take evasive action. Do whatever you have to.' He turned to the serfs at the controls of his fighter. 'Find Karvik's fighter, I want to know if anyone could have made it.'

Another jolt and the fighter banked to avoid a falling torrent of wreckage, slabs of hull plate streaking past the viewscreen. Karendin's craft, which housed the infirmary, would be busy even before the fighters landed, guessed Sarpedon.

'Crash us if you have to.’ said Sarpedon to his crew. 'Just bring us down.’

'Crash-land in thirty seconds, commander.’ replied the serf at the navigation helm.

'Do it.’ Sarpedon switched to the channels for Squads Krydel and Luko in the fighter's passenger compartment. We're coming down hard, sergeants.’

LUKO CHECKED THE restraints on his grav-couch, his hand dextrous in spite of the massive lightning claw gauntlets he wore. 'You heard the man.’ he shouted to his men over the din of wreckage slamming off the fighter's hull. 'Buckle up.’

? . "

KARVIK AND SEVRAS'S fighter hit the ground too steeply, one wing catching in the frozen earth and flipping the fighter end over end. It came to rest upside-down within sight of the facility, spewing strange alien fuel onto the tundra.

Theirs was the first down, though not intentionally. Even as the craft was still slewing to a stop the first elements of Teturact's army were picking themselves from the fallen chunks of wreckage and piles of bodies, their flesh burned and frozen by the fall, bones broken, minds jelly. The will of their master demanded that they stand on broken legs and take up twisted shards of wreckage as weapons. Their master had shown them salvation, even holding back death itself - so what could they do but serve?

Their master, their god, demanded service in return for everything he had given them. There was no reason for them to resist as they shambled towards the fallen fighter and towards the landing spots of other silver craft now streaking towards the ground, nothing remaining in their ruined minds but the resonating order to kill.

SERGEANT LUKO'S RESTRAINTS only just held as the fighter slammed into the ground, the frozen surface «craping agonisingly against the hull, the alien entrails of the craft shaking loose under the impact. He was thrown around in his restraints until he thought his reinforced ribcage would collapse.

He knew how important this mission was, and that to die during it was a more honourable death than any of the billions of Imperial citizens could hope for - but he did not want to die like this, out of sight of the enemy, the victim of chance and gravity.

The howling stopped. In the moment of silence that followed Luko checked his autosenses and tested his muscle groups for injury. Bruises, strains: nothing he couldn't ignore.

'We're down.’ came the vox from the bridge.

'Soul Drinkers, move out!' ordered Sergeant Kxy-del from the other side of the compartment. The metal of the hull flowed and peeled back from an iris that opened in the fighter's side. Freezing air flooded in.

Krydel was out of his restraints and already leading his Marines out. Luko snapped off his own restraints and the power fields of his lightning claws were alive before he hit the ground.

'Look lively, men, it's not a happy welcome!' he voxed as he saw the first enemies scrambling towards him. Bolter fire snapped and several of the living dead came apart.

Sergeant Krydel set off headlong to secure the fighter's landing site. Luko ran to the nearest cover - a gigantic fallen chunk of machinery - and sliced the first few corpses that crawled out of it to ribbons with his lightning claws.

Good. He was blooded. Now the real business could begin.

Debris was still falling. Some was recognisable, landing craft or jerry-built drop pods, more was just random chunks of the diseased flagship. Bodies were falling, too, and very few stayed lying down where they landed. Luko could see the facility, smaller than some of the fallen wreckage, a single-storey building pockmarked and scorched by small arms fire.

'Get me a fire point here! I want fire arcs covering the approach, Karraidin's coming in on our tail!' Luko's Marines scrambled onto the wreckage, forming a hard point where they could find cover and form a disciplined fire point to keep the approaches to the facility clear of enemies.

Luko glanced up and saw the sky dark as if a thunderstorm was brewing. A bright streak of light was another fighter coming in and dark specks were more of Teturact's army coming down.

The first wave was just a harrying force to keep the Soul Drinkers from getting dug in. What followed would be the real test. Vermin like this had killed ;Dreo, they said, a man Luko had served alongside as a brother and who he could not imagine dying. The heart of that corruption was above them, and Luko hoped that whether the Chapter succeeded or failed, they could do some damage to that heart.

Maybe even stop it from beating. But for the moment Luko had more immediate concerns.

'We're clear to thirty metres.’ voxed Krydel over the chatter of bolter fire.'

'We've got you covered. Start the push on the facility.’ replied Luko, barely flinching as a building-sized chunk of engine crashed to the ground nearby.

Luko glanced round to see Sarpedon emerging from the craft, moving swiftly on his eight legs, beheading a corpse-mutant that loped towards him without breaking his stride.

'Karraidin, we're down. What's your position?' Sarpedon was voxing. Then a scream and the descending silver dart of a fighter cut through the air overhead in answer, the craft banking sharply and looping down into a perfect short landing between Sarpedon's position and the facility.

Sarpedon hurried into cover beside Luko, snapping off shots with his bolt pistol as he went. 'Hold this position, sergeant.’ said Sarpedon. 'Cover Krydel and Karraidin's force.'

'Where will you be, commander?'

'Everywhere. Same as the enemy.’

Luko nodded and clambered onto the smouldering wreckage where he could direct his squad's fire. Already, thick swarms of enemies were pouring from fallen landers, their numbers denuded by disciplined fire from Luko and Krydel. But there were so many of them...

And there would be more. It was raining corpses, and not one of them would stay dead for long.

EVEN FROM THE Crescent Moon's landing site the fallout was clearly visible, a dark torrent pouring onto the horizon like a storm of black rain. The blurred black smudge in the sky that was the enemy battleship was fragmenting even as Thaddeus watched, sections of the hull peeling away to reveal the ship's skeleton.

The cargo ramp of the Crescent Moon touched the ground and Colonel Vinn, in the lead APC, gave the order to roll out. The column of vehicles - refitted Chimera transports with reinforced armour and overcharged engines, along with a couple of Sorori-tas Rhino APCs - roared out of the Crescent Moon and onto the surface of Stratix Luminae.

Thaddeus, from his Chimera towards the back of the column, looked out from the commander's hatch as the vehicle rolled down the ramp. The air was freezing and he was glad of the heavy blastcoat he wore - he could see his breath coiling in the air. Every planet, he had learned in his short Inquisitorial career, had its own smell, and Stratix Luminae smelled empty and secretive like an abandoned house. The colourless landscape of endless tundra seemed to hold something more than just desolation, as if something had happened long ago, or was sleeping beneath the surface, that resonated through the air and the barren earth.