Under the cold, calculated leadership of Omegon, the Alpha Legion had displayed the full breadth of their professional lethality. Not only had they rapidly subjugated Shyzen, bringing both the local ratmen and humans under their yoke, but they had also seized a neighboring Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World and a vital Supply World.
Leveraging the warp storms that had severed all Astropathic communication, these Alpha Legion operatives donned the guise of loyalists. They claimed to be reinforcements sent to purge the burgeoning vermin blight. The beleaguered Planetary Governors and local garrisons, drowning in chaos, harbored no suspicion. The masquerade was flawless; shifting between the heraldry of the Ultramarines and the Salamanders, the XX Legion slipped effortlessly into the strategic hearts of these Imperial worlds.
The betrayal was surgical. At the precipice of the conflict, every high-ranking Imperial commander, noble, and Governor was summarily executed by these "Angels of the Emperor." Left leaderless and reeling, the Imperial forces were absorbed into the Alpha Legion's fold without the chance to offer resistance.
Yet, the conquest of worlds was a trifle compared to the frustration of subduing the Skaven. The Alpha Legion's philosophy was one of maximum utility; they loathed the senseless destruction of resources. Consequently, Imperial captives and defectors were systematically integrated into their ranks, but only after a series of calculated, brutal executions served as a warning to the rest. From these masses, the most exceptional humans and ratmen were selected to be trained as sleeper agents, further expanding the Legion's byzantine intelligence network.
"Truly worthy of the Adeptus Astartes; such efficiency is unparalleled," Lucius remarked, nodding in approval as he observed the rapid progress of Omegon and his Legion.
However, alongside Omegon's success, another shadow had drawn Lucius's attention, a signature suggesting the presence of Alpharius himself. This lead had been uncovered by a former celebrated regiment of the Imperium: the Craddock's Rangers.
They were "former" celebrities because the Craddock's Rangers were a force of Ratling infiltration snipers. Once renowned for their unwavering loyalty, their status shifted instantly to traitors and heretics the moment their homeworld, and indeed their entire sub-species, was corrupted by the Great Horned Rat.
With practiced ease, the Craddock's Rangers had commandeered a starship and fled their station, eventually making planetfall on an Agri-World. Driven by Skaven instinct, these Ratlings, already masters of stealth and larceny, went to ground. They delved into the subterranean depths, plotting a way to slink back to their "motherland."
Beneath the surface, they encountered their "kin"—newborn Skaven who had only just risen from the filth by the divine will of the Great Horned Rat. Faced with these primitive, beast-like creatures, the Craddock's Rangers used their superior combat prowess to dominate the locals, claiming the breeding females and declaring themselves Clan Craddock. Such is the genesis of countless minor Skaven clans: hide a single Breeder, lure a few hundred Slave Rats with empty promises, and a new power is born.
But during the ensuing warp storms, Clan Craddock suffered a humiliating setback during their first foray onto an Industrial World. They discovered that in the art of the shadow, there were humans, over two meters tall and heavily muscled, who were even more adept at infiltration than they. Clan Craddock's logistics were systematically dismantled by these elusive, elite warriors.
Driven by Skaven paranoia, the Ratlings of Clan Craddock began to shriek prayers to the Great Horned Rat. It was this psychic resonance that alerted Lucius to these phantom humans.
As the Primarch of the XX Legion, the master of secrets, Alpharius could remain hidden even from the gaze of a Chaos God. But Lucius held a trump card: he already possessed the essence of Omegon. As twin Primarchs, the metaphysical tether between their souls allowed the Great Horned Rat to easily track the hidden brother, provided he was forced to reveal himself.
…
Industrial World, Ocando.
An unremarkable world on the fringes of the Segmentum Tempestus, Ocando was the industrial heartbeat for a dozen neighboring systems. Its garrison was meager, and its Planetary Governor was a vacuum of competence. When the rat-tide surged, the Governor offered no defense; instead, he looted the treasury, requisitioned the fleet, and vanished into the void. Whether his fleet would ever find a navigable warp route to a safe harbor remained a mystery known only to the dark stars.
Yet, as the populace fell into despair, an organization calling themselves the "Keepers of Secrets" emerged. Through a campaign of targeted assassinations and the destruction of Skaven supply lines, they ground the vermin advance to a halt. At their head stood a towering, bald man of imposing stature. The desperate survivors of Ocando flocked to the banner of the Keepers to defend what remained of their home.
This bald giant was, of course, the hidden Alpharius, accompanied by the Astartes who still followed his shadow.
"This deviates from our design," Alpharius spoke to his inner circle within the gloom of a secure chamber. "My brother... is likely my brother no longer."
"Father," one of his sons replied, "regardless of the cost, we have no alternative. We either abandon this world to the void or stand and fight to the last."
"I am aware." Alpharius's psychic intuition was screaming. He could feel the warp-taint consuming the other half of his soul, threatening to pull him into the same abyss that had claimed Omegon.
While the twins acted in tandem, their ideologies were disparate. Alpharius remained, in his own convoluted way, a loyalist of the Imperium. He sought to be the ultimate infiltrator within the Great Enemy, intended to strike a death blow against Chaos at the final hour. Omegon, however, believed that only the total extinction of humanity could starve the Chaos Gods, a path Alpharius refused to walk.
But the time for subtlety had passed. He could no longer remain in the shadows.
"Very well. If it is war they want, let us show them the bite of the Alpha Legion," Alpharius declared. As he stood, the air seemed to shiver, and he was clad once more in the Pythian Scales, the twin to the power armor worn by Omegon. "At the very least, we shall demonstrate our strength to the entity that dared corrupt my brother."
The Alpha Legion Astartes had already covertly replaced every wavering or traitorous officer on the planet, unifying the world's defenses into a single, cohesive blade. Alpharius believed that as long as they remained in realspace, the Dark Gods could not forcibly corrupt them as Nurgle had the IV Legion.
However, from within the Warp, the Great Horned Rat watched and disagreed.
Deep beneath the crust of Ocando, a Grey Seer reached the Craddock Ratlings, and for the first time, they witnessed a miracle of their new god. But the message was grim: the Seer declared that in thirteen days, every spark of life on the planet would be sacrificed to drag Ocando bodily into the Warp.
The news sent the Ratlings of Clan Craddock into a blind panic. They began a frantic, midnight evacuation of their Breeders, all while spinning grand lies to the indigenous Skaven to keep them attacking, using "Great Plans" as bait to keep the humans' attention occupied.
Lucius watched Alpharius's desperate struggle on this tiny stage and smiled. It was like watching a game piece on a table attempting to outwit the player sitting above it.
As long as I refuse to play by the rules, your fate is merely a matter of my whim.
——————
If you want to read ahead of everyone, go to my pat-reon: pat-re-on.c-om/magnor (remove the hyphen to access normally)