Salamander

'Yes.' Vinyar hissed with impatience.

'My lord,' the disembodied voice issued from some other unknown part of the ship, 'a vessel is hailing us.' There was a short pause before the voice continued. 'It is an Astartes strike cruiser.'

Vinyar raised an eyebrow as he turned to regard the Salamanders. The exchange between them remained unspoken, and as he suddenly felt his dominance slipping away like earth from a sundered hill, he issued a reluctant command.

'Broadcast it into my throne room.'

The link was cut and a new rain of static began as the ship's communications patched in from another source.

'Yours, I presume,' Vinyar muttered with bitter disdain.

Pyriel didn't even have time to nod as Captain N'keln's voice rang powerfully throughout the room from concealed vox speakers in the walls.

'This is Brother-Captain N'keln of the Salamanders 3rd Company, aboard strike cruiser

Vulkan's Wrath.

Release my men at once or face the consequences.'

Dak'ir smiled behind his battle-helm. Evidently Brother Apion had managed to establish contact with their ship.

'You address Captain Vinyar of the Marines Malevolent, and we do not respond to demands.' Vinyar was bullish, despite the precarious position he was in.

'

You

will respond to mine,' N'keln replied curtly. 'Escort my men back to the

Archimedes Rex.

I will not ask a third time.'

'Your men are free to go when they choose. It was they that requested an audience.'

'You will also hand over the forge-ship to our authority.' N'keln pressed, ignoring what the other captain had just said.

Vinyar scowled, clearly not liking where this was going.

'The ship is ours,' he hissed, his expression dark as he surveyed the three Salamanders before him, foisting all of his anger upon them in lieu of their absent captain. 'I will not relinquish it.'

There was another pause before the vox-link crackled again and the disembodied voice from before issued out.

'My lord, we are detecting weapons priming on the

Vulkan's Wrath.'

Vinyar whirled to confront the vox-link as if it were an enemy that could be threatened or intimidated to change its report.

'What?' he snapped, flashing daggers at Pyriel. 'Confirm: the Salamander ship is bringing weapons to bear?'

'A full broadside of laser batteries, yes my lord.'

Vinyar hammered the arm of his throne with his power fist and crushed it. With the remnants of shattered circuitry and other detritus dripping to the ground from his fist, he glared at the invaders in front of him.

'You would fire upon a fellow Astartes vessel, but rail at me for threatening to execute a gaggle of human serfs?'

The Salamanders remained stoic in their silence. The confrontation was all but over now; they only needed to wait it out.

Vinyar slumped back heavily in his half-demolished throne, all arrogance and superiority having bled away from his expression and his body language - in its place was seething annoyance. The air was charged, and for a moment it seemed as if the Marine Malevolent captain was debating whether or not to engage the

Vulkan's Wrath

anyway and slay the interlopers aboard his ship. In the end, he relented.

'Take the vessel, if you must. But mark me: this misdeed will be remembered, Salamanders. None who raise arms against the Marines Malevolent do so without consequence or reply.' Vinyar turned away from them then to quietly brood in the shadows. When he did speak again a few seconds later, his voice was little more than a hate-filled whisper.

'Now, get off my ship.'

Not wishing to

risk the capriciousness of the

Purgatory's

teleportarium or its captain's spite, Pyriel transported the errant Salamanders back aboard the

Archimedes Rex

by psychically opening a gate of infinity into the immaterium. Invoking such power was not without risk, but Pyriel as an Epistolary-level Librarian was accomplished in his craft. The three Astartes arrived back in the cryo-vault aboard the forge-ship without mishap.

Though still uncomfortable, Dak'ir found the experience much less disconcerting as the metal walls of the room slowly resolved around him. An eldritch storm heralded their arrival as the veil over the material realm was peeled back to allow the Salamanders through. Re-emerging into reality, they found themselves encircled by their battle-brothers, weapons ready in the event of something unnatural coming across with them, seeking access via the breach in the fabric of reality that Pyriel had torn in order to effect their crossing.

Upon transition back aboard the

Archimedes Rex,

and after the dispersal of their vigilant battle-brothers, Dak'ir noticed that the Marines Malevolent were gone. Vinyar had evidently made good on his promise to haul his warriors out of the ship. But that wasn't all that was missing. The modest cache of arms the Marines Malevolent had piled up ready for teleport was absent too.

'When did this happen?' Tsu'gan demanded to know as soon as he'd realised the weapons and armour were missing.

'Upon extraction, no more than a minute before your arrival,' offered Brother S'tang, 'Men and materiel fled as one.'

S'tang was one of those keeping sentry and who had reacted upon his errant sergeant's return.

Tsu'gan shook his head in disgust and turned to Brother Apion, who was stationed farther away by the ship's vox-link. It was he who had re-established contact with the

Vulkan's Wrath.

'

This cannot stand. Raise Captain N'keln at once. We must chase these curs down and take back what they've stolen.'

'With respect, brother-sergeant, Captain N'keln has already been informed.' Tsu'gan's wrath was stayed a moment. 'And what is to be done?'

'Nothing, sir. The captain is content that we have the ship and the bulk of its arms. He does not wish to press the issue with the Marines Malevolent any further.'

'For what reason?' Tsu'gan asked, his anger abruptly returned. 'They are pirates, tantamount to renegades in my eyes. Vinyar and his whoresons must be brought to account for this.'

Brother Apion, to his great credit, was unflinching in the face of the sergeant's ire. 'Those are the captain's orders, sir.'

'Given without explanation?'

'Yes, sir.' Iagon's voice insinuated its way into the debate.

'I am certain the captain would have had his reasons, brother-sergeant. It is likely he did not wish to risk the lives of any potential Mechanicus survivors.' He had not been amongst the sentry