‘Move!’ he shouted. Su-Kassen dived after him as he went through the doorway. He turned as he crossed the threshold, grabbed the doors and pushed, his face pale and taut. The doors were three-metre-high slabs of plasteel inlaid with silver images of lightning bolts. The piston systems that shut them normally were capable of crushing an armoured Space Marine. Dorn rammed the doors shut with his hands. They shook as something struck the other side.

‘Seal them!’ he called, but Su-Kassen was already at the manual locking handle, yanking it down with all of her strength. Bolts shot into place with a drum roll of cogs. The doors began to glow red with heat. Dorn turned as warriors in yellow armour and black cloaks ran to circle them.

‘Lord,’ called Archamus, as the Huscarls formed a triangle around their primarch, guns facing outwards.

The silver on the doors was beginning to melt.

‘Go to the silent vault. Unshackle my forgotten sons. They join the battle by my will,’ said Dorn, his voice clear. ‘Now.’

Archamus paused and looked at Dorn.

‘And you, my lord?’

‘We need to reach the bridge.’

Archamus nodded and was already moving; half of the Huscarls broke away and formed up on him.

Dorn was moving towards one of the other doors that led to the arterial connection to the bridge.

‘With me, admiral,’ he called. Behind them, the doors began to flake chunks of molten metal.

Strike Frigate Persephone, Inner System Gulf

‘Auspex failure!’

‘Long-range vox failure!’

‘Fleet target integration lost!’

Alarms and voices cut across the Persephone’s bridge. Sigismund felt heat prickle his skin and the deck pitch as the Persephone rolled. An arc of lightning sliced across the void where she had been. Blood mist boiled out into the vacuum. Smoke was pouring from the helm machinery. Shouts and screams were echoing through his skull. The gravity on the bridge failed and for a second he was floating. Then it reasserted itself with crushing force. A human serf officer slammed into the deck nearby, skull and spine shattered.

‘Reality is coming apart,’ called the sensor officer. Blood was running down her face. ‘We cannot see the rest of the fleet. We cannot see anything.’

‘We are losing navigational data,’ intoned a lexmechanic from his cradle of brass-bound lenses.

Sigismund felt another jolt thump through the frigate.

‘Get us a bearing now!’ shouted Rann. The Assault commander was bareheaded, a fresh wound from falling debris seeping blood across his scars.

‘It’s gone…’ said one of the officers. ‘Every system is in seizure. We can’t–’

‘Open the blast shutters,’ said Sigismund. Rann looked around at him, mouth opening in question. ‘Open them now,’ called Sigismund.