‘Yes, brother-captain.’ The lieutenant raised his fist to his chest plastron in salute. ‘As you command.’ He moved away, speaking quickly with the red-robed Aesthetek.

Aeschelus activated the vox again.

‘Baron Gusser, tell the Imperial commander that he is to cease all messages of surrender immediately. You are to resist the enemy in any way possible, with your lives if needed. The Ultramarines will capitulate to no enemy, no matter how exotic. Only with courage will you prevail.’

‘You’re coming for us, captain?’ the baron whispered, barely daring to utter the words. ‘Will you save us?’

‘First you must save yourselves if we are to be of assistance. Stand by for further transmissions on this channel.’

He killed the link with a snarl, finally venting his disgust at the weakness in the man. The depression effect of the warp-nullification was in full force but it seemed the inhabitants of Orestes Orbital had found some way to mitigate it. That could hold the key to victory, but in the meantime Aeschelus needed something more tangible to work with. The system’s inhabitants were on the verge of defeat; he needed to give them something to focus on, a signal that not all was lost. As harbingers of the Indomitus Crusade it was not just the battle-brothers aboard the ship that were important, it was the message they had carried. A message that was being taken across the storm-sundered galaxy.

Remembering this, he switched on the vox again.

‘Orestes Orbital, this is Captain Aeschelus. Know this and spread the word. The Emperor has not forgotten you.’

Ah-hotep watched with interest as the small blip of energy she recognised as the alien ship moved away from the orbiting construct in the outer system. She wished to know more about this sly intruder but dared not activate any of her more aggressive sensors in case she brought the newcomer to the attention of Simut. The overlord appeared to be wholly ignorant of the starship’s arrival and was in orbit over the target world having deployed Zozar and his Destroyer legion to the surface.

Reviewing the relative positions of the necron fleet, the scattered remnants of the system defenders and the unidentified ship moving inbound at increasing speed, Ah-hotep calculated that her ship would be in the line of approach. However, if the attacker had any idea of what they were facing, it was a small course correction to take them past the necron main fleet to the resonator flotilla about half an orbit further out. Ah-hotep made some quick scans and projections, elimi­nated the intruder from her musings, and formed the image into a cortical broadcast.