The Night Revelation was at the head of the squadron, pulling even further ahead. The Ultramarines torpedo barrage hit it as its warp engines were spooling up to make the jump. Further back, the Vitam Mortem lowered its bow below the ecliptic, its angle with respect to the rest of the squadron becoming more and more steep. It was as close to an evasion as a vessel of its magnitude could muster.

Seventy-three torpedoes hit the Night Revelation in a matter of seconds. Its void shields collapsed immediately. The blasts that lit up the length of its hull fused into a single river of fire, a lava flow devouring the integrity of the strike cruiser. The warp engines went critical, and a sphere of unreality expanded from inside the hull. The shape of the vessel bulged, distorted and rippled as the shimmering bubble burst from its confines. The shimmer spread. The entire ship refracted fire and reality, a fragmenting mirror. Then it exploded. Ignited plasma and uncontrolled immaterium lashed out. The phantoms of the night perished in the heart of a new star. The killing light grew, and in its hunger it swallowed the Infinite Fall. The frigate’s hull melted as it drove through the fireball, and then it too became part of the purging dawn.

The Vitam Mortem went lower, and lower yet, until it was running perpendicular to the plane of the squadron’s flight. It sustained torpedo hits on its stern, and flames swept through its corridors, cutting off the enginarium from the superstructure. Primary power flickered. The void shields went down for a full two seconds. But then it was past the initial barrage, and still accelerating.

The Phosphene and the Descent from Hope tried to follow it. The High Ascent and Cornucopia took the Descent from Hope apart, moving forwards to trap the vessel between themselves, hammering it with batteries of cannons and macro-lasguns. It hit back, punishing the larger ships on either side, but it took many times the damage it could inflict. It was a flaming ruin when it emerged from between the two ships. It moved off into the void, a crematorium for all aboard.

On the bridge of the Glorious Nova, Corvo watched the Vitam ­Mortem’s evasion. The Nova’s course was changing to put it on a pursuit heading. ‘Are you seeing the craven flight?’ he voxed.

Aboard the battle-barge Magisterial, Chapter Master Empion of the IX answered, ‘We are.’ The Magisterial was only now coming into range of the battle. The ship and its escort were approaching from the direction in which the Vitam Mortem sought to flee. ‘The traitors are running into our teeth,’ Empion said.