Fulgrim by Graham McNeill Read Free Book Online

Gaius Caphen, his voice surging in the earpiece as Marius turned a corner into yet another twisting street of burrows and corpses.
    ‘Where are you?’ he demanded. ‘We’re trying to reach you, but these damned streets keep turning us around all over the place.
    ‘The main arterial route towards our objective was strongly held, so Captain Demeter sent us and Thelonius to flank their position.’
    ‘While he went up the centre, no doubt,’ said Marius.
    ‘Yes, sir,’ said Caphen.
    ‘We shall home in on your signal, but if there’s something else you can do to mark your position, then do it! Vairosean out.’
    Marius followed the blue dot projected onto the internal surface of his visor that represented Gaius Caphen’s vox signal, though it faded with each turn they took through the maze of coral.
    ‘Damn this place! No!’ snarled Marius as the signal faded completely.
    He raised his hand and called a halt, but as he did so a huge explosion erupted from nearby and a tall, curling tower of coral collapsed in flames not more than thirty metres to their left.
    ‘That has to be it,’ he said and searched for a way around the bristling lumps of coral. The streets wound away from the explosion, and he knew they would never reach Caphen by taking any of them. He looked over at the billowing black clouds and said, ‘We’re going over! Move out!’
    Marius scrabbled up the face of a Laer burrow, easily finding hand- and foot-holds in the gnarled coral. He pulled himself higher and higher, the ground rapidly receding beneath him as he and the warriors of the Third made their way over the roofs of Atoll 19.
    O STIAN WATCHED THE first assault craft launch from the Pride of the Emperor with a mixture of awe and irritation. Awe, for it was a truly magnificent thing to watch the martial power of the Legion unleashed on an enemy world, and irritation because it had taken him away from the unblemished marble in his studio. First Captain Julius Kaesoron had sent advance word of the launch to Serena and she had immediately come to fetch him from his studio to a prime spot on the observation deck.
    He’d tried to refuse, saying he was busy, but Serena had been adamant, claiming that all he was doing was sitting looking at the marble, and nothing he could say would persuade her otherwise. Now, standing before the armoured glass of the observation deck, he was heartily glad she had dragged him away.
    ‘It’s rather wonderful, don’t you think?’ asked Serena, glancing up from her sketchbook as her hand dashed across its surface, capturing the moment with astounding skill.
    ‘It’s amazing,’ agreed Ostian, staring at her profile as a second wave of ships wreathed in the blue fire of their launch caught the sunlight on their steel flanks. The observation deck was hundreds of metres above the launch rails, but Ostian fancied he could still feel the vibrations of their release in his bones.
    A final wave of Stormbirds launched from the other vessels of the Emperor’s Children and he turned from Serena to watch them fly, birds of prey shooting into space like great darts of fire. Kaesoron had said that this was to be a full-scale assault and, seeing the sheer number of craft being launched, Ostian could well believe it.
    ‘I wonder what it would be like,’ said Ostian, ‘the entire surface of a world covered by one enormous ocean. I can barely conceive of such a thing.’
    ‘Who knows?’ replied Serena, flicking a tendril of dark hair from her eyes as she continued furiously sketching. ‘I imagine it would be like any other sea.’
    ‘It looks wonderful from here.’
    Serena gave him a sidelong glance and said, ‘Did you not see Twenty-Eight Two?’
    Ostian shook his head. ‘I got here just as the fleet left for Laeran. This is the first world other than Terra I’ve seen from space.’
    ‘Then you’ve never seen the sea?’
    ‘I’ve never seen the sea,’ agreed Ostian, feeling foolish for admitting such a