Nykona Sharrowkyn - Cavor Sarta: Six solar months after the dreadful events of the Drop Site Massacre had been a time of nearly continuous fighting for the Sysipheum and its crew. The vessel had conducted multiple hit-and-run attacks, bleeding the Traitors one cut at a time. Most of the Sysipheum's crew had been wounded in the escape: those wounds had now mended.Though formed in a time of desperation, the Sysipheum's crew had become a tight-knit group of survivors and an efficient fighting force. In the early days of the Horus Heresy, the Sysipheum’s most notorious success was the infiltration of the Traitor-dominated Forge World of Cavor Sarta.Located in the Thramas Sector of the Ultima Segmentum, not far from the Imperial strongholds of Heroldar and Thramas, Cavor Sarta had been crippled at the outset of the Horus Heresy when the Night Lords Legion attacked it from their newly settled base of Tsagualsa.Yet the VIIIth Legion had not come as conquerors, leaving this task instead to their allies the Word Bearers and the billion thralls of that Traitor Legion's Chapter of the Venomous Thorns.Acting upon intelligence gathered by the Ist Legion, the Dark Angels, which was by then embroiled in the Thramas Crusade, the Sysipheum came to Cavor Sarta in hope of taking possession of one of the Unilingual Cipher Hosts that made Traitor communications impervious to the efforts of Imperial Cipher Breakers.It was Sabik Wayland who first coined the designation of Kryptos for these entities, a name that quickly spread amongst the Loyalist forces.On Cavor Sarta, Sharrowkyn and Wayland infiltrated the devastated continent-spanning assembly yards and manufactoria, mindful of the new degenerate Skitarii and other aberrations spawned by the Dark Mechanicum. What Loyalist magi still remained equipped Wayland with their rarest techno-arcana, for against the two infiltrators stood hundred of thousands of enemies, the most dangerous being called "ferrovores."Sharrowkyn's and Wayland's skills were vastly different but complementary. His own warplate having been destroyed in the escape from Istvaan V, Sharrowkyn now bore a reconstituted suit of Astartes Power Armour, a patchwork of marks and pieces that he mused would have seen him expelled from the training regimes or earned him a commendation back on Deliverance.The Raven Guard's skills at stealth and infiltration would prove paramount in this mission, as would Wayland's technical knowledge, but most important was that Sharrowkyn had mastered the tactical knowledge of the XIXth Legion.The Iron Hands' way of war was not a subtle one, and against this number of enemies brute force would not do the trick. Their target was being held inside a heavily fortified forge temple which was protected by defence towers with interlocking fields of fire, pict-scanners, motion detectors and pressure differentials that made every attempt to infiltrate nearly suicidal. The size of the forge temple's garrison was unknown, but at least fifty ferrovores stalked in its vicinity.Unable to enter the temple, Wayland's first reaction was to call down the Sysipheum’s company and bash their way through the enemy's defences, but Sharrowkyn had another idea. The Raven Guard's credo in this matter was simple: if the position was too heavily defended to infiltrate, draw the enemy out of their stronghold.Cavor Sarta had been heavily damaged in the initial invasion by the Traitors, and the Forge World's planetary network of data trunking had been unearthed in some regions. It was one of these exposed sections of optical cable that Wayland used to commune with the temple's Machine Spirit.Having studied on distant Mars, Wayland had studied Adept Zeth's invention and was able to hack into Cavor Sarta's noospheric communication network. Wayland's ministrations caused the temple's atomic reactor to go critical. Soon the temple's klaxons sprang into life and panicked Imperial Army units and Skitarii began to flee the complex.Only one group, led by a towering Astartes in crimson Power Armour and bedecked in wax-sealed scrolls, maintained its cohesion. Identifying their target, Wayland and Sharrowkyn attacked. Wayland's manipulations had not been confined to the temple complex, for he had also overwritten the trip-triggered mine fields to detonate simultaneously, thus causing pandemonium amongst the enemy.Driven mad by conflicting sensory inputs, the ferrovores attacked their allies, which was exactly what Wayland and Sharrowkyn had hoped for. With a little help from a repurposed ferrovore Wayland had been able to capture, the two infiltrators fought their way to the Kryptos, the temple's reactor only solar minutes away from explosion.As the ferrovores went berserk, the enemy Word Bearer, most likely one of the dangerous demagogues known as a Dark Apostle, seized the Kryptos and tried to escape, leaving his mortal and Mechanicum troops to be slaughtered.Sharrowkyn could not let this happen, and triggering his modified Jump Pack, he landed a short distance from the fleeing Word Bearer. Shooting on the move, Sharrowkyn clipped the enemy's helmet and shoulder guard, causing him to stumble. Sliding his Needler Sniper Rifle around his shoulder and drawing his two gladii, Sharrowkyn made a second jump just as the Dark Apostle drew his own Bolter.But before he could pull the trigger, his weapon had been pierced by Sharrowkyn's first gladius, the second one quickly finding its way through the enemy's breastplate. Decapitating the enemy with a backhand stroke, Sharrowkyn sheathed his weapons and took possession of his prize: the Kryptos.Racing back to Wayland with the Kryptos hefted at his shoulder, Sharrowkyn reached his ally just as the temple's reactor core went critical. As they were about to be engulfed in nuclear fire, Wayland activated his stasis field generator. This rare device had the power to stop the flow of time and effectively created a pocket reality entirely cut off from the flow of time.As the wave of roaring devastation rolled over Sharrowkyn, Wayland and the Kryptos, they were safe inside the stasis field. As the timer on the stasis field hit zero, time reasserted its grip on the trio and they stood on a scorched plain of glass.Nothing remained of the forge temple except a deep gouge in the earth and a kilometer-high mushroom cloud. With all evidence and possible witnesses having been disposed of, Wayland activated his Teleport Homer, and the three of them were transported back onboard the Sysipheum, the enemy none the wiser.