The evacuation of Agrelan moved with the controlled urgency of a force that had accepted the outcome and was now focused entirely on minimising what it cost. Astra Militarum transports climbed out of the hive's upper atmosphere in successive waves, each one carrying the remnants of what had been a coherent defense force two days ago. Raven Guard Thunderhawks wove between them, pulling the last of the Astartes off the surface. Below the rising fleet, the first Sun Shark bombers were already crossing over the hive's outer walls, beginning their runs. Their fire confirmed, in the clearest possible terms, that Agrelan now belonged to the Tau.
In the void above the planet, the battle had been going on longer. The Raven Guard and White Scars fleet elements, alongside the Imperial Navy vessels assigned to the system, had been engaged with the Tau fleet for hours, trading fire at ranges that favored neither side entirely. When the evacuating transports and Thunderhawks finished clearing the upper atmosphere and began reaching the fleet, the Imperial commanders seized the shift in momentum and broke contact. The combined fleet drove hard into the cold void, putting distance between themselves and the Tau pursuit, and did not slow down.
Aboard the battle barge Avenger, in an ancient palace hall where a great statue of Corax the Raven King stood watch from the far wall, Nolan met with the assembled Raven Guard and reached an agreement that took less time than either side had expected.
The Raven Guard would recognize Nolan as a Primarch. Nolan would lead them in the name of the twenty-second Primarch and of his Primarch brother Corax, for as long as this campaign required it. There was very little debate. The gene-bond was not a negotiable thing, and every Raven Guard in that hall had felt it from the moment they saw his face outside the hive entrance.
When the formal words were done, Chapter Master Severax turned to the matter of losses.
"Lord Primarch." His expression was sober. "Your Terminator guard have evacuated safely to the White Scars vessels. Their Third Company commander, Master of the Hunt Kor'sarro Khan, sends his welcome." He paused briefly. "From the Black Templars, ten battle-brothers were lost in the rearguard action. Only half their gene-seeds could be recovered. The remaining battle-brothers of their contingent are aboard our ships."
Nolan listened without interruption. When Severax finished, Nolan let the silence sit for a moment, then asked a direct question.
"Severax. What is your honest assessment of why we lost Agrelan?"
The Chapter Master drew a slow breath. He did not look away.
"Not to avoid responsibility, Lord Primarch, but the truth is this: when the Raven Guard arrived, the Imperial commanders on the ground had already abandoned any belief in continuing to fight. The Gue'vesa traitors compounded it. They knew Agrelan's defenses in detail, every approach, every chokepoint. Even if another full battle group had been present from the beginning, I am not certain the outcome would have been different. The conditions for a defeat were already in place before we landed."
He straightened.
"What I will say is this: the loss of Agrelan will shake the defense councils across the sector. Forces that have been slow to respond will move now. And with a Primarch present to lead them, we can take back everything we have conceded."
Nolan held his gaze for a moment, then gave a single nod.
"Good. Hold onto that conviction." He turned toward the doors. "Now take me to the bridge. I want the Raven Guard to raise every available Imperial force in this theater and begin consolidating command. This war is not over."
Chapter Master Severax moved his head once in acknowledgment, activated his armor, and led Nolan out of the hall.
The fall of Agrelan Hive sent a shock through the Imperial command structure that was closer to fury than grief.
A lord general of the Cadian Shock Troops assembled a large Cadian formation and pushed it into the theater as a counterattack force, accompanied by a Knight household and a scattering of Free Blade knights, with Adeptus Mechanicus warships providing additional firepower support along their transit route. The forces gathering to contest the Tau advance were growing.
Meanwhile, Nolan had secured formal command authority over the Raven Guard and White Scars fleet elements and moved them to cover Prefetia, a mineral world that the Tau expedition had identified as its next major objective. The planet was lightly developed: a single planetary fortress, no large-scale mining operations yet underway, and beneath its surface enough valuable ore deposits to sustain a Tau advance for years. Commander Shadowsun, leading the Tau expedition's primary combat element, had tasked her force with taking it. The Ethereal Aun'Di was moving with the offensive, providing doctrinal oversight to the campaign.
Prefetia had to be held.
The Imperial War Council of the system, however, would not recognise Nolan's authority. Even with Chapter Master Severax of the Raven Guard and the White Scars' own officers vouching for him, the Council cited the impossibility of verifying his identity through standard channels and continued to prosecute their own campaign according to their own plan. The Astartes believed. The mortal commanders did not, or chose not to.
Nolan worked with what he had.
With two Chapters under his direct command, he placed his forces at the engagement point and went after Ethereal Aun'Di directly.
The orbital defense platforms above Prefetia opened fire as the Tau fleet came in range, coherent lance blasts reaching out into the dark between the two forces. The Raven Guard fleet drove hard at the nearest Hero-class cruisers, concentrating fire in rotating salvoes that forced the Tau ships to maneuver continuously rather than commit to a steady bombardment line. A White Scars strike cruiser found a gap in the Tau fleet's formation and went through it at full drive, assault boats and boarding torpedoes away before the Tau point-defense systems had fully tracked the new angle of approach. Astartes hit the hull of a Hero-class cruiser in three places simultaneously.
The fighting inside that ship went on for some time. When it ended, the cruiser's shield generators were gone and its maneuvering systems were failing. The Raven Guard fleet shifted full fire onto it and the ship came apart, hull plates peeling away in long slow arcs before the pressurized compartments finally gave way and the whole structure came down in a debris field.
But three Orca transports had already left it.
They had departed before the internal fighting was even finished, pulling clear of the cruiser's emergency venting and punching for the surface of Prefetia in a steep, fast descent. Whatever they were carrying, whoever had authorised their departure ahead of the ship's destruction, they were now below the engagement ceiling and dropping hard toward the surface.
Kor'sarro Khan's voice broke across the command channel, and the urgency in it was unmistakeable even through vox distortion.
"All units, the Tau Ethereal is inside one of those Orca transports. Do not let it reach the surface intact." A brief pause. "Primarch. Raven Guard. The surface is yours."
His words had barely finished transmitting before the Avenger's flight deck was already moving. Thunderhawks lifted off in sequence, one after another, engines pushing hard as they cleared the deck and climbed into the void, noses tilted toward Prefetia's grey upper atmosphere.
The Raven Guard, who had carried the weight of Agrelan's fall with them since the evacuation, were going back down. This time, they were not covering a retreat.
This time, Nolan was leading the way.
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