Big Game V – Chapter Twenty One: Khorne’s Bane
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Colonel Augustus Octavius entered his quarters generously afforded to him aboard the Imperial Navy vessel Retribution of Mankind. Once again, the forces of Chaos had been thrown back, silenced by the guns of the Cadian 401st. Well, the Cadian 401st and several of its allies, but who’s counting? Octavius thought as he poured himself an Amasec neat. He removed his boots, put his feet up, and sipped the drink gingerly. Even here at the Bakka fleet shipyards, almost as far away from Cadia as you could get, Octavius felt like he had come home after a long day of work. This week of relaxation as the fleet repaired and restocked would see them all the way back to Cadia, and then it was another 6 months on the line, waiting to throw Chaos back into the Eye where they came from. That was home, San Leor was not. But the call had gone out and “Khorne’s Bane” answered. A month in transit, and two months of purging the taint that dared infect the sacred shrineworld, but it was worth it for an Amasec neat and a job well done. Seconds before Octavius truly began to relax, the sounder on his door activated.
Bim-bom.
Octavius groaned. What now? “Come!” he shouted. The door slid open to admit his adjutant, Jules.
“Orders, sir.” Jules said, grinning ear-to-ear. That could mean two things. Either Warmaster Judocai had granted Jules his own Imperial fiefdom, or the Cadian 401st was being called to action against the forces of Chaos. Octavius took the data slate from Jules, and read it. It was a communiqué directly from Warmaster Judocai deploying the Cadian 401st and several other Guard forces under his command in the Segmentum Ultima theater to the Segmentum Tempestus, under the command of an Inquisitor, to a forgotten nowhere called Iperin. Apparently it was an old Imperial world lost in a Warp Storm, and found again. Chaos wanted it. This made Octavius want it, if only so that the Ruinous powers would not have it. The fleet would leave in three days. Octavius finished his Amasec and looked up at Jules.
“Let’s go tell the men the good news.”