Nykona Sharrowkyn - Eirene Septimus: The Kryptos soon completed its decoding of the information retrieved from the Alpha Legion Strike Cruiser. What it told the Iron Hands was of a most sensitive nature -- the data indicated that the mysterious and elusive Primarch of the XXth Legion was bound to meet with some of their troops in a nearby star system.Thanks to the Kryptos, the Iron Hands now had the navigational logs of the Zeta Morgeld and the means to intercept Alpharius. As Meduson convened with Tyro, the Sisypheum and the Iron Heart readied themselves for a most dangerous venture -- to kill a Primarch.But before the Sisypheum could join the Iron Heart in this joint quest, they had to take the proposed mission to Captain Branthan. So it came to pass that the wounded captain was awakened again from his stasis-slumber.Branthan's words were still law as far as the Iron Hands were concerned, and his commands were clear -- accept the mission, redeem the Iron Tenth's honour, and kill Alpharius.The data of the Zeta Morgeld took the Iron Hands into an uninhabited and barely mapped star system at the edge of known space. It was then no surprise when the data-logs confirmed that the system had originally been discovered by the Alpha Legion.The navigational charts took the Sisypheum and its partner to the system's seventh world, designated Eirene Septimus. The planet was a Death World whose acidic oceans were utterly inimical to life. Yet it had strategic value, for its precipitation consisted of pure promethium, a precious resource in this time of interstellar civil war.The sole human structure present on Eirene Septimus was a gigantic hovering grav-plate which harboured almost fully automated refineries, all in service of the XXth Legion. Designated Laerna 2-12, this gravitational plate was to be the place where Alpharius would talk to his Legion.Infiltrating the facility would have been next to impossible if the Iron Hands had not retrieved several suits of Alpha Legion power armour from the Zeta Morgeld. Their plan was for an advanced party from the Sisypheum to masquerade as Alpha Legion Astartes to allow the landing parties from both the Sisypheum and the Iron Heart to enter Laerna 2-12.As was fairly common within the Iron Tenth, the Iron Hands' commanders, Shadrak Meduson and Cadmus Tyro, would personally lead their troops from the front. Neither would be part of the infiltration team.Acting on his own initiative, Nykona Sharrowkyn entered the facility ahead of the infiltration team itself, using his modified Jump Pack to jump from the Storm Eagle's rear ramp while it was still approaching Laerna 2-12. Touching down amidst the rooftops and skyways of the refineries, Sharrowkyn promptly despatched two sentinels to allow the Iron Hands' Storm Eagle and escorting Thunderhawk to disembark their troops.Once the path was clear, Sharrowkyn wasted no time and promptly went in search of a good vantage point from which he would be able to cover the infiltration team's progress. Lerna 2-12 was a massive anti-gravitational plate, an entire city floating above the acid seas of Eirene Septimus, hovering at the very edge of the cloudline where the air was still breathable.As suspected with such a secret facility, much of Lerna 2-12 was automated, a discovery Sharrowkyn quickly relayed to the still approaching Iron Hands gunships. To inflict maximum damage on the Alpha Legion, the Sisypheum's two Iron Fathers, Frater Thamatica and Sabik Wayland, had developed a chemical compound that would ignite within the Alpha Legion vessels' promethium reservoirs.But to release the compound, the Iron Hands first needed to gain control of Lerna 2-12's main control hub, which had been designated as the infiltration team's first target. Led by Septus Thoic and Verdana Cybus, two survivors of the Iron Hands Legion's Avernii Clan, the infiltration team initially made good progress, as to the few Mechanicum priests they encountered the infiltrators seemed indistinguishable from real members of the XXth Legion.It was only when the team encountered other Astartes that matters became tense. The infiltration team encountered several Alpha Legion Land Speeders and were challenged by their crews. Having no knowledge of the XXth Legion's secret battle-cant and code-phrases, Cybus managed to approach one of the vehicles by faking a malfunctioning vox bead before Sharrowkyn intervened -- warning Cybus to shoot when he himself opened fire.A high precision shot from Sharrowkyn's Needler Sniper Rifle took the second Land Speeder's gunner in the eye before the follow-up shots killed its driver, thus giving Cybus the split-second he needed to kill the first skimmer's crew. With the infiltration team's true identity still safe, Sharrowkyn advanced towards the objective.Lerna 2-12's main control hub was located within a towering ziggurat whose architecture betrayed its affiliation to the Mechanicum rather than the Alpha Legion. Around the ziggurat several Titans marched, but fortunately for the Loyalists, these were not the mighty war-engines fielded by the Collegia Titanica.They were instead workhorses of industrial design whose grappling limbs, fuel connector and lifter rigs were powerful enough to move the immense fuel lines gathered in the central refuelling column that dwarfed the main control hub as a mighty tree might a sapling. To gain access to the control hub, the infiltration team chose subtle misdirection.Still clad in their stolen warplate, the Loyalists hastily staged a fake firefight, tricking the ziggurat's guards into letting them enter the facility. Thanks in no small part to the code phrase they had been greeted with during their first encounter with the Traitors, the team convinced the guards that they were under assault by splinter-elements of the Raven Guard.Opening the door, the Alpha Legion let their "comrades" in, ready to repel the enemy when the Iron Hands turned on them. Sharrowkyn placed the first shot, killing three guards in quick succession as the Iron Hands claimed the control room.The Loyalists used the captured Land Speeders to catch the surviving Alpha Legion Astartes in a devastating cross-fire, shredding much of the far wall with their Heavy Bolters to ensure Cybus' plan remained operational. Sharrowkyn did not stay to watch this, as a sniper needed to move on as soon as his shot had been fired.As Alpharius' voidship slowly docked with Lerna 2-12, Sharrowkyn found a perfect spot with an unobstructed line of fire to the staging ground where his target would soon appear. Frater Taumatica was conducting the necessary rites to release the explosive compound into the promethium tanks used to refuel the Alpha Legion ships, turning them into gigantic flying bombs.The infiltration team had also reached the staging ground, Thoic and Cybus leading the party. Sharrowkyn observed all of this through the lense of his Needle Sniper Rifle, attentive to every motion or sign that they had been discovered. A true marksman needed absolute calm to make the perfect shot, and Sharrowkyn knew after the failure of his first attempt how difficult it truly was. Yet, he could not shake the feeling that something was amiss.From his sniper's nest some three hundred metres above the ground, Sharrowkyn had an eagle's view of the control hub and the landing platform on which Alpharius' Thunderhawk gunship was due to arrive any solar minute. Cybus and his infiltration team, now numbering only five warriors, advanced unopposed and were covered by two squads of Iron Hands Astartes from the Iron Heart -- Meduson's men. They moved with far superior discretion and skill than the men of the Sisypheum, and Sharrowkyn found a new respect for these warriors and their commanding officer.Yet doubts still nagged at the borders of his mind. Fixing Thoic and Cybus through his rifle's crosshairs, easily piercing the veil of heavy rain that had begun to fall, Sharrowkyn stared at his comrades-in-arms for a long moment. Fighting alongside someone for standard years bred a special kind of connection between warriors, and Sharrowkyn knew every quirk, every slight detail in the body language of the men he was now observing.Nothing seemed to warrant his misgivings. The rain was obviously washing away some of the blood from Cybus' armour, and other members of his infiltration team had also suffered some wounds in the taking of the control hub. Was this what had tipped him off?A slight limp due to a ricocheting bolter round or a shallow knife cut? Before he had the opportunity to delve further into the matter, Sharrowkyn's thoughts were interrupted by the screeching sound of a Thunderhawk's engines, as an unmarked gunship approached the landing pad. Alpharius was inbound.Once his transport had landed, Alpharius stepped from the Thunderhawk, quickly joining the waiting party led by Cybus and Thoic. From the moment he stepped out of the unmarked Thunderhawk, Sharrowkyn had the Primarch in his crosshairs but took no further action. As the sire of the XXth Legion exchanged some words with Thoic, Sharrowkyn could only watch in horror as Thoic drew his gladius and slit Cybus' throat in one deft stroke.As a fierce firefight erupted between the Iron Hands in disguise and Alpharius' escort, Thoic jumped on Alpharius, battling the Primarch in hand-to-hand combat. Sharrowkyn followed the massacre through the scope of his Needler Sniper Rifle. Focussing on the duel between Thoic and Alpharius, Sharrowkyn realised the reason for his earlier disquiet -- the warrior fighting the Primarch was not Septus Thoic, but an imposter.Recalling Meduson's earlier comment that he had infiltrated the Sisypheum, Sharrowkyn realised the full extent of the truth. Cursing Tyro's gullibility, Sharrowkyn clutched his Needler Sniper Rifle tighter and focused on the "Thoic" who was now sparring with Alpharius himself. To Sharrowkyn's trained eye, their similar fighting style was testimony enough that both warriors were in fact members of the Alpha Legion.Reading the ebb and flow of the combat, trying to dismiss the fact that beneath him his battle-brothers were dying, Sharrowkyn fired, and Alpharius went down, his brain pulverised by a high precision shot. Sharrowkyn promptly switched targets, aiming for "Thoic" but the infiltrator was already diving for cover while "Meduson's" men were flanking the remaining Alpha Legion Astartes.However, before Sharrowkyn could take his next shot, two Fire Raptor gunships were closing in on his position, their central Avenger Gatling Cannons already cycling. Wondering how they had found him so quickly, Sharrowkyn sprinted towards the edge on the venting tower, jumping to escape the torrent of fire unleashed by approaching gunship.Forewarned by a last transmission from Sabik Wayland, Cadmus Tyro realized how truly he had been betrayed, for his target had never been the Primarch of the XXth Legion but a dissident from the Alpha Legion's own ranks. The man they had set out to kill and the crews and Astartes that would soon die on the sabotaged ships had all been Loyalist soldiers of the Emperor.And Cadmus Tyro had killed them, manipulated by the Traitors. The true Alpharius had been much closer at hand, masquerading this entire time as Shadrak Meduson. Save for Frater Thamatica and Ignatius Numen, all Iron Hands present in the control hub were in truth Alpha Legion Astartes in disguise, following their Primarch's order.Hopelessly outnumbered and confronted with a Primarch, Tyro knew he had little to no chance of escaping, but he could still buy Thamatica some time to come up with a contingency plan. The Iron Father never failed to deliver and he did so this time when a massive manipulator claw smashed through the control hub's ceiling, causing the entire building to collapse.Still connected with Lerna 2-12's control grid, Thamatica had ordered the industrial Titans to destroy the control hub, allowing the three of them to turn the tables on their enemies. It was not much and arrayed against a Primarch they had no true chance of victory, but it ultimately proved to be a boon as Sharrowkyn was able to join the fight in time to save Numen and Thamatica.Dropping directly into the combat, Sharrowkyn slammed into the Traitor named Ashur Maesan, a dreadfully agile, swift and vicious fighter who had already killed four of the Sisypheum's Astartes with his favoured weapon, the Hiebmesser usually favoured by the dreaded Night Lords.Maesan recovered quickly, more quickly than Sharrowkyn had anticipated, lunging at Sharrowkyn before the Raven Guard had assumed his fighting stance. Using his Jump Pack with skill, Sharrowkyn put some distance between him and his opponent and their duel began in earnest.Soon Sharrowkyn was bleeding from two wounds on his neck and hip, disorientated by the Alpha Legion Astartes' fighting style. Feigning exhaustion, Sharrowkyn tricked Maesan into an all-out attack, but rushed him using his Jump Pack. Lightning-quick, Maesan ducked the onrushing Sharrowkyn, just as Sharrowkyn had anticipated. Letting go of one of his twin black swords to free his hand, Sharrowkyn used his free hand to grab Maesan's shoulder guard.Using his momentum to swing himself around like a pendulum, Sharrowkyn triggered his Jump Pack again, reversing his motion and diving onto Maesan. He stabbed Maesan right behind the collarbone, his black sword plunging deep into the Alpha Legion Astartes' vital organs. Making sure his opponent was truly dead, Sharrowkyn readied himself for the next fight.Retrieving his discarded gladius, Nykona Sharrowkyn readied himself to face the most dangerous enemy he had ever encountered: one of the Emperor's own Primarchs. It was not the first time Sharrowkyn had seen one born of the Emperor's own flesh and blood, and it was not even the first time he had tried to kill one of them. The events on Hydra Cordatus were a testimony to that. But it would be the first time he would face a Primarch in hand-to-hand combat.Alpharius slowly advanced, negligently tossing aside Frater Thamatica who landed close to where the deeply-wounded Captain Tyro laid. Words passed between the Primarch of the XXth Legion and the scion of the Raven Lord, Alpharius praising Sharrowkyn's fighting skills. The Primarch bent over, retrieving Maesan's Hiebmesser and attaching it to his belt.Sharrowkyn tensed, expecting an attack despite the fact that the Primarch was not showing any sign of hostility. "Put your blades away, Nykona," said Alpharius, "I said you were good, but that shadow-slipping trick my brother taught you won't work on me." "We'll see," answered the defiant Raven Guard, gripping his swords tighter. "No, we won't," replied Alpharius, turning around, adamant on not fighting Sharrowkyn for his brother Magnus the Red had asked him not to.Puzzled, Sharrowkyn sheathed his own swords, knowing that he had nothing to fear, for despite his reputation, Alpharius was always true to his word. Sharrowkyn asked the Primarch what this had all been for, why he had entangled the Sysipheum in his plans and brought them to Lerna 2-12, but Alpharius simply answered he should ask Tyro...if he survived.Only now was the Raven Guard aware of Tyro's true condition, his chest pierced by four mass-reactive shells and his skin even paler than his own. That he still lived at all was a testimony to the Iron Hand's stubbornness. Alpharius departed, saying : "I said I wouldn’t kill you, but I think that might."As if on cue, the prow of one of the destroyed Alpha Legion Strike Cruisers fell down onto Lerna 2-12, engulfing the refineries in another explosion. With the help of Thamatica, Sharrowkyn hefted Tyro's body between them and tried to escape the grav-plate's impending death.Fortunately for Sharrowkyn, Sabik Wayland had survived his aerial duel against "Meduson's" Thunderhawk and despite having taken severe hits, the Iron Father's Storm Eagle was still airborne. As the grav-plate was about to fall into the planet's acid oceans, the remaining four survivors of the Sysipheum quickly embarked.Sharrowkyn rushed to the cockpit to assist Wayland as co-pilot, for Eirene Septimus' atmosphere was on the verge of igniting. Battling his gunship's controls to keep their Storm Eagle on course, they broke the atmosphere just as Lerna 2-12 was erased from existence by the fiery tornado unleashed by the Strike Cruiser's destruction.Cadmus Tyro stubbornly clung to life, even managing to exchange a few words with the lone Raven Guard, regretting that he had not heeded Sharowkyn's advice. Henceforth, Sharrowkyn would be given a voice in the Sysipheum's councils and be considered an equal in all matters.