The War Oath’s engines burned brighter. The ship had been prepared for this moment in its long fall from above the solar disc. Disciples of Kelbor-Hal had worked in its engine spaces and generatoria decks. They had modified and mutilated, changed the nature of the ship from the inside. Only the shell of the one-time Imperial Fists ship existed, the bones symbol enough for its purpose. As it leapt forwards, it screamed. Bulkheads began to vibrate. Plasma poured into reactor chambers and mixed with exotic energies. Speed built. The ships surrounding the War Oath peeled aside as it bore down towards Luna. They had protected and followed it as their flagship, but it was that no longer. The attacking fleet parted before it.

The defenders saw it come, its speed building second by second. Auspex screens fogged and stuttered as sensors tried to lock on to its passage. In its hull, the crew that still lived spoke their prayers to the gods that had claimed their souls.

Ships moved to block the War Oath’s path and its fleet moved to protect it in turn. Fire tore into their shields and armour.

In the teleportation chamber, Abaddon felt his skin tighten inside his armour. Arcs of lightning split the air.

The ships closest to the Luna Ring moved aside as the great ship plunged down. The Ring’s guns fired, half-blind. Explosions tore the War Oath’s shields and raked its flanks. Inside its engine spaces, tech-priests in black robes intoned their last commands to its reactors and folded themselves out of reality. The ship accelerated in a last jet of flame. Sections of plasteel ripped free. The fire pouring from the defences broke its shields. Balls of lightning burst across its hull. A hundred-metre-long section tore from its prow and ploughed back across its spine, striking the bridge castle.

The War Oath shrieked as it began to break apart. It was almost at the Ring.

Abaddon closed his eyes.

‘Activate,’ he said.

The teleportation generators convulsed and threw them into the void beyond.

A second later, the wounded ship struck the Luna Ring. Shock waves rippled through the vast hoop. The War Oath ploughed on for an instant. The Ring twisted like rope. The plasma reactors and munitions in the War Oath’s hull detonated. A sphere of energy exploded. Stone flashed to light. Metal became dust.

The tremors spilled into the warp as the destruction rolled out through the materium. Then the occult energies laced into the ship’s reactors flooded out. Paradox overtook reality. Fire unravelled substance. Light passed through stone and flesh. A twenty-kilometre-long section of the Ring vanished into a cloud of shadow.

An aching instant of time unfurled. On Terra, the image of a black moon rose in the nightmares of those few who slept.