Grant Us Release

This planet had not been a target of the expeditionary fleet. Only because of a sudden daemonic attack had the fleet been forced to leave the Warp and evade danger.

But when the augurs revealed the human tragedy unfolding on that planet, everyone fell silent.

Lox closed his eyes in sorrow. Guilliman clenched his teeth, his power fist creaking horribly beneath his grip.

Sanguinius planted the Spear of Telesto against the deck. The wings behind him drew tight, and a tear of blood fell from the corner of his eye.

Only the Lion remained calm. His gaze had not left the plague-ravaged planet before them for even a second.

Even after they entered realspace, the bell continued to toll. Invisible psychic waves made the human warships tremble like toys in a giant’s hand.

Indeed, as the humans moved farther from the Warp, the ringing became ever more frantic, as though something had lost an immensely coveted treasure.

But as the Warp rift closed and the veil descended once more, the malevolent presence within the Warp finally withdrew its power in bitter resentment. It had failed to keep the precious four primarchs aboard that ship.

"Where are we?" Guilliman asked. Many mortal crewmen and officers aboard had been lost. With disease spreading, even those who had not died needed time to recover.

"This is not the Davin system. We are still some distance away."

Lox glanced at the cogitator’s display. It was calculating their position from the stars’ locations and the fleet’s course.

Within the processing center of this planet-sized warship, one Blackstone Array after another formed a powerful anti-Warp field, and a true artificial intelligence operated within that environment.

Vast floating-point processing power controlled the entire warship. That was why the crew transferred from the Invincible Reason could operate the New Caliban so easily.

Countless automated facilities and programs had freed up manpower. At the very least, the loading of shells into the macro-battery arrays was no longer done by mortal slave laborers, nor were the ship’s engines and reactors maintained by those inefficient oil-stinkers.

Though this warship was over a hundred kilometers long and far larger than the Invincible Reason, it possessed greater response speed and maneuverability. It was more intelligent and more efficient.

The Dark Angels had transferred the Invincible Reason’s cogitator core onto the New Caliban. This stellar behemoth effectively possessed two processing cores: the external cogitator processor and the artificial intelligence processor within the Blackstone Array.

In truth, Lox believed that the artificial intelligence beneath the Blackstone Array, immune to Warp corruption, was fully capable of controlling this warship alone. But the Dark Angels’ stubbornness and vigilance had given the New Caliban two thinking minds.

"This is the Epecimos system. There are actually refugees on this damned planet."

Once the cogitator gave its answer, everyone understood the expeditionary fleet’s location.

The plague planet below the fleet showed powerful Warp activity, something exceedingly rare in realspace. Lox believed it might be connected somehow to the decaying garden they had encountered in the Warp earlier.

Yet even more astonishing was another report. The captain of the New Caliban announced that they had received a transmission from Epecimos III.

That humans had somehow survived on a planet resembling a living hell sounded utterly unbelievable.

"Are they human, or is this some other thing’s trap?" Guilliman asked.

"Yes. The signal is severely distorted, but it is still transmitting outward, calling for help."

"Then move closer. Bring the ship closer so we can hear more clearly," the Lion said. His captain, Stannius, immediately carried out the Lion’s command.

As they drew nearer, the warship’s scanning arrays saw ever more clearly.

All of Epecimos III seemed to be soaking in a putrid broth of decay. Its two hive cities were both burning, fighting against the all-pervasive corrosion of plague. Only the burning hives still shone upon the planet.

The land and forests resembled squirming gray lumps of flesh, while the entire continent formed a vast mouth stretched into a chilling smile.

For some reason, the sight of the planet stirred a powerful thought within Lox.

This world, this planet, was starving and in agony, yet it could not die.

This was a planet deeply corrupted by the Warp, drifting unpredictably within the Ruinstorm. No one knew what had happened here, save for the expeditionary fleet that had arrived by accident.

Captain Stannius learned the contents of the transmission from the warship’s Senior Tech-priest and priests of the Mechanicus, then faithfully relayed it to the primarchs.

"A colonel named Elesska Revos has contacted us. She says Epecimos III is still fighting, but they will not be able to hold out much longer."

"Ever since the sun’s light began to flicker, an irresistible plague has swept this hive world. Too many people have died, but more terrifying still, the dead rose again and continued spreading the disease."

Lox and Guilliman looked at one another. They understood that what the planet’s remaining defenders described was precisely the Ruinstorm unleashed by the Word Bearers after the end of the war on Calth.

As the Ruinstorm raged, the Warp’s etheric currents had intensified their erosion of realspace. Perhaps that was closely connected to why this planet had become what it was.

"Where is your supreme commander, Colonel?" the Lion asked.

"I am the supreme commander, my lord." The woman’s voice sounded strange, as though she were forcing down the urge to cough and swallowing thick phlegm caught in her throat and windpipe.

"Our governor died long ago. General Parhek lost contact a week ago. All survivors have gathered at the hive spires."

"I can see you. So many large ships."

The woman’s voice seemed to brighten at the sight of something astonishing, only to dim again moments later.

From the hive spires, seeing the expeditionary fleet in space was hardly impossible. Especially with the New Caliban’s terrifying size, it would have been stranger not to see it.

"Should we save them? All the survivors are at the spires?" Lox looked at the others and asked.

No one spoke. Even Guilliman remained silent. A cautious calm filled the air, and no one wished to shatter it first.

Everyone knew the horror occurring on that planet. Even if those survivors had lived until now, they had likely already contracted Warp-borne disease.

To save them meant placing the expeditionary fleet in danger.

More often than not, emotion had to yield to reason. Even primarchs were no exception.

They were hailed as demigods, but what could they do when faced with humans who had fallen dead to these diseases, only to rise again as monsters?

The silence over the communicator reached the hive spire, and the woman named Elesska spoke.

"I am sorry, my lords. Our forces fought to the end, but our greatest enemy was not those walking corpses. It was the ground beneath our feet. It was fighting against us. Disease and decay spread through the earth. We do not know what it is. Even the priests of the Mechanicus were infected and died long ago."

"We do not know why we have survived this long, but I understand that we have little time left as well. The remaining defenders of Epecimos III are changing. We too will become walking corpses like our comrades."

At last, Elesska could no longer suppress her coughing. Listening to that harrowing sound, Lox could imagine a steadfast female warrior holding on until the very end, only to finally cough up bloody phlegm.

"What do you need us to do?" Lox seized the communicator and asked.

Perhaps they had desperately held on for the arrival of reinforcements. But when the expeditionary fleet truly arrived, they discovered that perhaps everything was already too late.

The last remnants of human honor prevented them from asking for evacuation. They chose silence instead.

The woman’s voice grew weaker and weaker, like the last words of the dying.

"We ask for nothing else, my lords. Please save our souls. Grant us release while we are still human."

"Epecimos III remains loyal to the Emperor. Please destroy our planet, destroy those blasphemous walking corpses, and send us into the Emperor’s embrace."

The Lion, Guilliman, and Sanguinius spoke as one.

"As you wish."

The transmission ended there. No one spoke. Only the mortal crew and Mechanicus technicians continued their work.

The New Caliban’s planet-killer cannon began charging. Endless light and heat gathered at its prow, while the ship’s side batteries launched cyclonic torpedoes. These deadly Exterminatus weapons descended upon the planet.

The continent shaped like a smiling face was blasted to pieces by the planet-killer cannon. The ocean like putrid broth evaporated completely, while the two human hive cities vanished amid flames and light stretching across thousands of kilometers.

The atmosphere began to burn. Clouds of fire spread across and covered the whole planet, like peeled fruit flesh exposing the filth and decay beneath.

Under the all-encompassing strikes of the cyclonic torpedoes, the mantle convulsed. Vast, terrifying earthquakes tore apart the continental shelves. It writhed and struggled like a living creature as the planet’s core shattered, and explosive shockwaves erupted in every direction.

Magma broke free of the planet’s gravity and shot into space, then cooled, solidified, and fell once more.

Epecimos III ruptured completely. Everything melted, collided, and broke apart. Now only interstellar dust drifting through space remained.

A planet, a life, let out a heart-wrenching whimper. At its most impassioned, piercing peak, it abruptly ceased. Both the Warp corruption and the planet itself had died completely.

Those humans who had held the line died, dying as humans.

Lox felt dazed. They had destroyed a human world with their own hands.

How many such places existed across the vast galaxy? How many humans were still enduring suffering?

Perhaps this was the necessary evil.