With both of them yelling, the ship nosed up into the docking aperture. Its keel caught on the rim of the door, ripping off its ventral comms array and destroying the projectors for the atmospheric integrity field that sealed air into the dock and kept the void out.

A rushing blast of air spat the Silencia out into the void.

'By the blood of the machine!' gasped Friedisch.

The void was ablaze. Giant ships slid past each other, blasting one another with planet-shattering broadsides. Friedisch called up a pict view astern, drawn to witness the fate of his home.

The debris choking the orbits of Momus and the mother planet Etrian was already being drawn out into bands of shining metal. A behemoth dragged itself across the sky overhead, the metal walls of its sides glaring in the sunlight. It was heeling over, fire burning on dozens of decks, a bright comet's tail of broken plasteel spreading behind it. Behind the Silencia, the tether of the Septa station was curling into itself, dropping down towards the battered surface of Momus. Septa itself was a burning mass that disintegrated as he watched.

The moonlet had been reduced in size by a third or more, the resultant swarm of icy asteroids clustering about it as if queuing to fall back upon the world.

'We nearly died,' he said breathily. Septa shuddered, and crumpled as it fell.

Cawl accelerated the Silencia away from the battle.

'Get the shields up, Friedisch.' 'We nearly died,' Friedisch repeated.

'Shields!' shouted Cawl.

'What?' said Friedisch, unable to stop looking at the carnage going on around them.

'Void shields!' said Cawl. 'Now. And this ship has an extensive stealth suite. Find it. Turn it on. Or we'll die.'

A trio of missiles blazed across their prow.

'I suggest you get on with it.'

The Silencia escaped attention as they fled. It was small and fast, and surrounded by clouds of auspex-choking metal. A few minutes later, its insignificant outline shimmered and vanished from sight.

Cawl breathed out a sigh of relief. They were slicing through the void towards the tangled pickets of the two fleets. With every passing second they accelerated, and the outer reaches of the sprawling battle flashed by. Friedisch stared in horrified fascination at the carnage.

'They're breaking away. The Space Wolves. They're running.'

'Good for them,' said Cawl. 'I wonder if they managed to kill the Warmaster?'

'How do you know that's what they were trying to do, really?'

'They are the Emperor's executioners, Friedisch. If I were you, I'd pay a little more attention to what is going on in the galaxy and less to your position in the Mechanicum hierarchy.'

'Adeptus Mechanicus,' said Friedisch pettishly.

Cawl gave him a condescending look. 'Now, of all times, you choose to be a pedant.'