While the Intercessors dispersed to secure the immediate vicinity, Praxa­medes and the Aggressors ascended the steps beyond the door, coming on the locked entrance to the control chamber. A single kick shattered the door’s hinges, sending it flying across the bare ferrocrete floor within. Sluggishly, the dock crew turned towards the new arrivals, a ghost of reaction passing across their faces, their jaws working slowly as though trying to form words. The man tilted his head, face screwing up in concentration.

‘Emperor’s Angels?’ he muttered, taking a step forward. He stopped and blinked stupidly.

‘Lieutenant, we have civilians,’ voxed Sergeant Villina from outside the docking chamber. ‘Minimal response to our presence. No threat presented.’

Other squad leaders echoed the report, confirming Praxa­medes’ suspicion.

‘Company command, I don’t think the enemy are on the station.’ He considered the implications of the crew’s sluggish behaviour. ‘The soul-dampening effect is in full force. Whatever weapon the necrons used at Casparill is here, or has been.’

There was a pause of a few seconds before Captain Aeschelus replied.

‘Be wary, lieutenant. If this effect has stretched from Casparill to this system, there is no way we can predict how powerful it might become or how continued exposure may take its toll.’

‘Understood, company command. Moving on to the main control chamber with all speed.’

‘Understood, assault command,’ replied Captain Aeschelus. ‘We will move in to provide support. I will come aboard when you have secured station control.’

Chapter Eleven

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Leshk Station had been an outer system transfer port, positioned close to the Mandeville point where warp-capable ships could arrive and depart with the least risk from the system’s gravitational influence. Interstellar vessels would unload their passengers and cargo into the station rather than undertake the time-consuming inter-planetary journey to the habitable core worlds. System lighters and bulk carriers ferried between the port and Orestes III.

Neither warp craft nor system vessels were docked when Aeschelus took a gunship over to the main docks to rendezvous with the Space Marines aboard Leshk, but as the captain viewed the exterior of the station he could see no sign of damage.

A contingent of Intercessors waited for him inside the passenger termi­nal, a substation that ran parallel to the main docking arms, closer to the station’s centre of mass but clear of the coming-and-going merchant craft. It was a small facility, capable of handling only a few hundred arriving and departing individuals. Most would have been naval transfers and replacements.

Dozens of people lingered around the terminal complex, shuffling without purpose from the hall to the adjoining chambers. The majority wore uniforms of one kind or another, a few in civilian clothes. They seemed capable of basic motor functions and the rudiments of previous behaviour – Aeschelus could see two children pulling open rations packs from a broken crate, messily crumbling the contents into mechanically working mouths, drool running down their chins.