V3 Chapter 123: Wait, What Do You Mean the Black Legion and the Iron Warriors Are Allied?
In the days that followed, Duvette found things a good deal easier than he'd expected.
Most of the Crusade's planning had been taken over by Guilliman and Villent between them. All Duvette had to do was attend the military briefings, pick out his own staff officers, and tell Evan to work out the kinks with them.
The rest of his time, Duvette spent continuing to lead the Inspectorate's personnel across Terra, rounding people up.
Watching officials who'd once held enormous power and standing now break down weeping in front of him never failed to strike Duvette as strangely relaxing.
Duvette handed the evidence and personnel over to Tyrion each time, and once the day's work was done, he'd occasionally head to the Tower of Hegemony, and sit beside Guilliman's desk to chat for a while.
During this stretch, Duvette also petitioned Guilliman on the Capet family's behalf for a renewed Rogue Trader charter.
The Regency's own office reviewed the Capet family's past record, and Cawl submitted supporting evidence through an encrypted channel as well.
The Capet family had once supplied fleet and transport support to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, and had since assisted Cawl in exploring the star-gates.
The highest tier of classified records also documented their service guarding the Men of Iron STC on Duvette and Cawl's behalf, for a full year.
Between those merits and the Capet family's own strength, it was more than enough for Guilliman to approve the petition.
The new charter, personally signed by the Imperial Regent, permitted the Capet family to expand their armed fleet, and to establish trade stations within territory reclaimed by the Crusade.
In exchange, the Capet family would provide transport and trade support to the Second Expeditionary Fleet, and help restore transit routes between reclaimed worlds.
Once he had the charter in hand, Duvette went personally to the Capet family's temporary quarters near Terra's spaceport.
Venus Capet was already waiting there, and the moment she saw him walk into the reception hall, a distinct look of resentment crossed her face.
She'd originally sworn she'd stay behind on the world where the Men of Iron STC sat, waiting for Duvette to return, and in the end, that wait had stretched into a full year.
It wasn't until Cawl finally hauled the equipment aboard the Zar-Quaesitor that she learned Duvette had already gone on to Terra with Guilliman long before.
Under Venus's gaze, Duvette felt more than a little guilty.
She'd guarded an asset that important on his behalf for an entire year, only to have to come chasing after him to Terra in the end. However he looked at it, that wasn't exactly fair treatment.
"This is for you. Take it."
Duvette held out the metal case holding the charter. Venus had just opened her mouth to keep complaining when she caught sight of the Regent's own seal on it, and the resentment vanished from her face fast.
She opened the case, and read carefully through the document Guilliman had signed.
Once she'd confirmed the authority and the family seal recorded on it, Venus threw herself straight at Duvette, hugging him without a single thought for the steward and guards standing right there.
Duvette raised both hands, careful to avoid the weapon hanging at Venus's waist, and could only let out a resigned sigh.
She was the head of a Rogue Trader house, whatever else she was, and pushing forty besides. Could she not act a little more composed?
Then again, Venus genuinely hadn't changed much in appearance. Longevity treatments and the family's own medical care kept her body looking just as young as ever, and her figure was about as full as it had been the first time Duvette laid eyes on her.
Venus let go of Duvette quickly enough, and went back to looking over the charter in her hands.
A document personally signed by Guilliman was more than enough to raise the Capet family's own standing, and the clauses permitting an expanded armed fleet and development rights on reclaimed worlds promised fresh opportunity besides.
"Don't get too excited just yet." Duvette warned her. "You've seen the appended clauses by now, I take it."
"Of course." Venus closed the case and handed it to the steward beside her for safekeeping. "Provide transport and trade support to the Second Expeditionary Fleet, help restore transit routes on reclaimed worlds. Those terms aren't exactly harsh, for the Capet family."
"Good. From here on, you'll be travelling with my fleet the whole way. The Crusade needs a Rogue Trader fleet that knows how to handle unfamiliar routes, regardless."
Venus stepped back, putting on a deliberately serious expression, then bowed to Duvette in the manner proper to Imperial nobility. "Understood, my lord Warmaster."
Duvette sighed again. "I don't officially hold that title yet. And don't call me Warmaster. Just keep calling me Commissar."
"Of course, my lord Warmaster."
Duvette gave up on correcting her. Venus invited him to stay for a meal after that, and even had a batch of fresh ingredients brought up specially from the flagship's own cold storage.
Just as Duvette was weighing whether to accept, an urgent transmission marked with the highest priority cut directly into his personal channel. The encrypted message came from the Tower of Hegemony — from Guilliman himself.
"Duvette. Return to the Tower of Hegemony at once. I have urgent business with you."
The ease on Duvette's face vanished the moment he read it. By the Palace's standard clock, it was already deep into the night — Guilliman should have been resting.
Since his revival, Guilliman had rarely needed genuine sleep, relying on meditation instead to ease his fatigue most of the time. Only recently, on his medical staff's advice, had he begun taking the occasional brief period of deep rest.
According to the Custodians' own information, Guilliman had scheduled exactly one of these rest periods for tonight. For him to send out an urgent summons at a time like this could only mean something had happened well outside anyone's expectations.
"Looks like this meal's going to have to wait for next time." Duvette closed the comm interface, and said to Venus, "Guilliman needs me for something urgent. I have to head back right away."
Venus caught the weight of it too. "The Capet family's shuttle is right outside. I'll have it take you to the Tower of Hegemony."
Duvette promised to visit again another time, and took his leave of Venus and the others at once. The shuttle lifted off from the spaceport quickly, following the dedicated route toward the Tower of Hegemony.
The moment the shuttle touched down on the landing pad beneath the tower, Duvette saw Italeo already waiting there, several Custodians standing around him, sealing off the approach.
"This urgent?" Duvette asked, coming down the ramp.
"The Regent woke suddenly during his rest period, and came straight to the Tower of Hegemony." Italeo turned and led Duvette toward the interior passage. "He ordered us to bring you in at once."
That sobered Duvette fast. Guilliman waking suddenly from rest and summoning him directly — had he genuinely dreamed something?
The two of them soon reached the familiar command chamber. The moment Duvette stepped inside, he saw Guilliman seated behind the desk, exhaustion still lingering on his face.
The Imperial Regent glanced at the others in the room, and made it clear he needed to speak with Duvette alone.
Italeo didn't move right away. He studied Duvette for a moment first, then personally ordered the Custodians present to withdraw from the room, Guilliman's Honour Guard following them out.
The heavy soundproofed doors closed slowly, cutting off every footstep from the corridor beyond. Guilliman pressed his gauntleted right hand against his forehead, silent for several seconds, as though still sorting through whatever he'd just seen.
"What happened?" Duvette asked, frowning.
"I had a dream." Guilliman said slowly. "Since my revival, I've rarely needed genuine sleep. Even when I rest, I can still control my own mind — I'm not easily influenced by outside forces."
"But this was different. The dream was chaotic. I couldn't wake myself from it. I couldn't change a single image that appeared within it."
Duvette rubbed his chin, pacing back and forth across the room. "You think it was a psychic prophecy?"
"I felt that same will once before, standing before the Golden Throne." Guilliman raised his head. "I suspect this is a warning from my father."
At those words, every trace of ease left Duvette's face entirely. "What did you dream?"
"A burning world, its surface already shattered. Countless Imperial soldiers dead along its defensive lines. Some catastrophe spreading outward from that world's position, until it tore the entire Imperium apart."
Guilliman paused. "I also saw great numbers of warriors in black power armour, their banners marked with symbols from the old days. And behind them, countless fleets of the Fourth Legion."
Something shifted immediately in Duvette's eyes. Guilliman noticed it, and went on to name the final figure he'd seen.
"The Lord of Iron. Perturabo."
Duvette froze where he stood. A shattered, burning world. A catastrophe that tore the Imperium apart. The Black Legion emerging out of the Eye of Terror. Taken together, it was more than enough to give him an answer.
Cadia.
If that fortress world were destroyed, the Cadian Pylons would fail right along with it. The Warp power they'd suppressed for so long would break free of every restraint at last, and finally take shape as the Great Rift, tearing across the whole galaxy.
The Black Legion appearing there wasn't surprising in itself. Abaddon the Despoiler was always going to launch his Thirteenth Black Crusade sooner or later.
Word of Guilliman's early revival had very likely already reached the Eye of Terror by now, and it suited Abaddon's own interests well enough to strike before the Imperium finished putting itself back in order.
What genuinely baffled Duvette was Perturabo. The Iron Warriors had worked alongside the Black Legion before; the two of them reaching another agreement wasn't impossible in itself.
But a Daemon Primarch personally taking part in the assault meant this war's scale had already gone far beyond anything the original history had recorded.
"My father told me once — the traitor fleets were regrouping within the Eye of Terror." Guilliman rubbed his brow. "That was a warning I received during my audience in the Throne Room. I never expected it to come this fast."
"What's the situation now?" Duvette asked at once. "Where does Cadia actually stand?"
This world could not be allowed to fall. If Cadia were destroyed, the entire Imperium would bear the consequences of the Great Rift right along with it — himself included.
"I've already pulled every report on Cadia." Guilliman answered. "Six months ago, when I first returned to Terra, I had the War Office submit a complete strategic assessment. Cadia has kept sending regular status reports since then, and the most recent one showed everything normal there."
"Every record from the Cadian fleet and the border patrol forces shows the situation normal. I've already ordered the Astropathic Choir to contact Cadia again, and instructed the local supreme commander to raise readiness and inspect every monitoring node facing the Eye of Terror."
None of that eased Duvette's tension in the slightest.
If the Emperor had gone out of his way to send a warning, that alone meant a danger ordinary reconnaissance hadn't yet detected was already enough to change the fate of the entire Imperium.
"Cadia cannot fall." Duvette said, abruptly. "Absolutely cannot."
Guilliman looked at Duvette, his expression graver than Guilliman had ever seen it. "What are you getting at?"
"We have to throw everything we have at whatever's coming for Cadia." Duvette said, meeting Guilliman's gaze head-on. "If Cadia falls, the Imperium is looking at a catastrophe big enough to tear the galaxy itself apart."
Guilliman didn't answer right away. He called up the galactic star map, looking first at the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, then shifting his gaze to Cadia, near the Eye of Terror.
"Mortarion is already threatening the Five Hundred Worlds. The Death Guard could launch a full assault at any moment." Guilliman said, low. "And now Abaddon and Perturabo have shown up at Cadia as well."
"I can change my fleet's route and go reinforce Cadia." Duvette offered. "But I have one request."
Guilliman turned back to look at him. "What request?"
"I want the Mountain Array to come with us straight to Cadia."
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