White Scars - Delay and Deception at Chondax: It had begun in the Chondax System, right towards the end of the long and brutal Chondax Campaign against the Greenskins -- the first inkling that all was not well in the wider Imperium. There had been no detail then, no authentication, just stray astropathic messages of dubious provenance. It should have been easy to dismiss, to put down to the warping power of the Empyrean.But it had worn on the Khan, unravelling his sleep. He felt that Imperium was standing upon a precipice. There were also conflicting reports received from the Imperial Fists Legion's Primarch Rogal Dorn that urged the White Scars to return to Terra to help defend the Throneworld alongside Dorn and Leman Russ, supposedly now a Traitor, as soon as possible.Everything had changed so quickly, garbled in a flurry of contradictory astropathy and secure comm-bursts: Russ of the Space Wolves had gone rogue; or the Warmaster had, taking several Legions with him; the White Scars were ordered to reinforce the Alpha Legion at the Alaxxes Nebula; Ferrus Manus had killed the peacock Fulgrim; Mars and the Mechanicum was in open revolt against the Emperor. Some of the Warp-translated messages bore chrono-marks from many solar months previously; some had been sent, it seemed, only solar hours previously.Though the Warmaster had ordered the White Scars to bring judgement upon the Space Wolves, the Khan would not unleash his vengeance upon Leman Russ and his get until he had more detailed information. The Khan had the strength of the Vth Legion arrayed before him, his ordu assembled and ready to strike, yet none could tell the Primarch who was the true enemy of the Imperium and all he held dear.Jaghatai was next contacted by Leman Russ himself, who had just returned from the Burning of Prospero and the assault against the Space Wolves' old rivals, the Thousand Sons Legion. The VIth Legion's fleet had mustered at the Alaxxes Nebula to lick its wounds after the recent campaign, when it was beset by the forces of the Alpha Legion. Horus had deployed the XXth Legion to launch a massive assault on Russ' battered and outnumbered Space Wolves.The Alpha Legion and its twin Primarchs, Alpharius Omegon, had long harboured deep grudges against the Space Wolves, and Leman Russ in particular, for his criticism of their reliance upon trickery, manipulation and subterfuge to win battles rather than engaging in what the Space Wolves Primarch saw as honourable, open combat. The Alpha Legion relished the chance to prove their superiority against the arrogant Space Wolves of Fenris by delaying them long enough to keep them from contributing to the Imperial defence of Terra.Although the Khan sympathised with the Space Wolves' predicament, he refused to get involved until he was able to sort out the conflicting and often contradictory astropathic messages he had received. Until he knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, who was ally and who was an enemy, who had truly betrayed the Emperor and who was still loyal, he refused to choose sides. Wishing his brother the best of luck, Jaghatai decided to seek his answers elsewhere.As the White Scars fleet made preparations to depart the Chondax System, they encountered a massive Alpha Legion flotilla. The Alpha Legion were an unknown quantity to the White Scars. They did not respond to communication requests and had hung back on the edge of the system, quietly accumulating more warships across a wide sweep of local space.There was no response from the XXth Legion's command despite all queries. All White Scars vessels were ordered not to escalate the situation and not to fire upon the interlopers unless fired upon. The warriors of the Vth Legion were to maintain perimeter integrity and not to permit Alpha Legion spacecraft to penetrate within range of the core White Scars fleet.As the Khagan decided on his Legion's next move, the Alpha Legion cordon remained intact, its smooth unity broken only by minor adjustments to the twin defensive lines. Every move that the White Scars made was reflected by Alpha Legion warships in what had become a bizarre game of mirrors. Though the Alpha Legion had presented no threat, these were not the actions of a friend. This could not be denied, but despite that, the Khan still resisted giving the order to attack. Mere hours earlier, the shape of the reported rebellion within the Imperium had been simple: Russ and his savages had defied orders once more. Now it had become complex, far more complex.Things were further complicated when the White Scars Astropathic Choir received official messages directly from Terra, from Rogal Dorn himself -- the White Scars were commanded to make the swiftest possible passage to the Throneworld where further instructions and further explanations would be given. The meaning was clear, its origin unambiguous.The Vth Legion had been ordered to ignore all other claims on their fealty, in particular those of the Warmaster Horus, who had been declared Traitor to the Emperor along with any other Legion answering his summons. But the Khan was not moved by these demands.He felt the old stirrings of resentment again, the chill anger of the unregarded son and the man who had bent the knee to avoid having domination forced upon him. A price always had to be paid for his inclination to freedom, for skirting along the edges of Imperial communication. The reality was that the White Scars were always the last to know what was happening in the wider galaxy.The Khan now saw the larger strategic picture -- the Alpha Legion did not wish to fight the White Scars, nor did they want to join them. They wanted to cause doubt, keeping the White Scars in the Chondax System to tie them up in questions, because they knew the veil was slowly lifting and that messages were only now getting through the aether of the Warp.The Sons of Alpharius were manipulators -- they wanted the White Scars to hear from Dorn. They had purposely kept the Vth Legion's fleet at Chondax until they could be sure the White Scars had picked up Dorn's message and call for aid.The Alpha Legion, for some unknown reason, wanted the White Scars to return to Terra and aid in its defence from whomever the real Traitors were. But the Khan would not take direction from anyone, not even from a Throneworld that only now that its Legions were tearing one another to pieces, deigned to remember that it had his warriors at its service.His White Scars were nobody's slaves. They were the ordu of Jaghatai Khan and they took orders from no one else. They would take no one's word for the truth, for they were on their own, just as they had always been, and if there was truth to be found in this, then they would find it for themselves before acting.