A second later the plates covering the viewports folded back with a rolling boom of metal slamming into metal. Horror poured in. Light boiled and spun through every colour; depth and distance flexed and reversed. Spheres of distant planets loomed large, swallowing the view of the stars before shrinking to pinpricks of light. And across it, vast and billowing like a shot-slashed sail, was a rift between worlds. Ships swarmed from it, glittering, cloaked in ectoplasm and warp-skinned creatures.

A part of Sigismund’s mind saw and understood. The enemy had found a way to bring their host to the seat of the Solar System. The fight would not be in the void now. It would be decided where it was always going to end: on the soil of Terra, beneath a sky of fire and iron.

Human crew across the bridge moaned and screamed, and some of them vomited. Sigismund felt his jaw clamp shut and muscles bunch across his body, as though he were trying to stand still in the face of a hurricane.

‘What–’ began Rann.

‘The sun,’ said Sigismund, raising his hand to point through the roiling chaos surrounding them. ‘We can see the sun still.’ And there it was, its light shredded and stained, but shining yet. ‘Set our course by that. Reach every ship we can – close formation, steer by the sun. Full speed.’

Seventh Fane of the Selenar, Luna

Abaddon twisted aside as the guardian beast reared up, dragging Layak into the air like a broken doll. The blade slave whirled from where it was cutting through the wall of light. The opening in the fields began to shut in front of Abaddon.

Fire burst from Layak as he struggled in the beast’s grasp. Its armour plates charred and distorted with heat, but it did not let go.

Around them, the troops and guardian creatures of the temple were falling as the Justaerin advanced through the maze of energy fields. At the edge of his sight Abaddon saw Urskar brace and fire a line of heavy rounds into four troopers as a field snapped from one position to another. The resistance would not last much longer, minutes at most, but minutes was all Matriarch Heliosa would need to empty her vials into the font of tubes in front of her. From there their contents would flow into the fane and beyond, poisoning, destroying, salting this sacred ground for those who would take it.