Broken, The - The Reckoning: A sense of urgency filled the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines as he ascended the massive staircase with even strides, his Honour Guard on either side. Inquisitor Drake and his men struggled to keep up with the pace set by the three Space Marines' enhanced physiologies. Far below, the sound of the fighting echoed up the tunnel-like space, as Brother Starn and his 1st Company brethren fought to hold the doors against the enemies rushing in from the courtyard.Each step of the titanic staircase was almost a yard high, clearly designed for Astartes. With detached interest, the Inquisitor noted that the further they ascended, the more the composition of the staircase changed. From roughly hewn stone, it shifted to steel alloy, and cabling ran alongside the stairs in thick snakes, clamped to the walls and ceiling.The staircase was also free of the fungal growth which infested the rest of the Fury. Other dark entrances, passageways and conduits led off the staircase, and the thrum of power grew under their feet. A few ceiling plates had buckled and fallen onto the steps below, and massive cables hung free of their brackets, but otherwise the keep's surroundings were in good repair.The staircase opened out onto a vast space like the narthex of a cathedral, a towering emptiness lit by guttering torches and flickering lumens which sputtered and winked high above them. Huge doors were set in a dull bulkhead, still bearing the ancient emblem of the Cog Mechanicum which had now been defaced and almost erased. In its stead, the Broken had carved a central rune, that of the Blood God and seven versions of the tripartite fly of Nurgle.The thick doors were indeed blast doors of the kind used to separate the critical compartments within a large voidship. As the party drew closer to them, vast hordes of fat black flies lifted up and began buzzing in a shapeless cloud. Only then could the Imperials see that the entire bulkhead had been anointed in bright-red blood, from which the flies fed.Lesser men would have squirmed in horror at this sight, but Marneus Calgar was undeterred. He stood still for one moment in an attempt to raise Galenus on the Vox and order him to disengage from the battle and link up with Brother-Sergeant Starn, but he could not get through. Even contact with the Terminators had been lost. They were alone.As he readied to penetrate what he supposed to be the throne room of "the Witness", Calgar turned to Inquisitor Drake . While the Chapter Master intended to face the leader of the Broken alone, his companions would help Drake fight through the enemy to the central controls of the Fury. His task was to destroy the space hulk by any means necessary. Otherwise all their sacrifices would be in vain.As he had done before, Calgar strode forward and smote the glistening, fly-spotted doors with one of his energy-wrapped fists. To his surprise, the great doors swung open unhindered, trailing streamers of slime and blood behind them. The Chapter Master entered a vast hall bathed in the red light of flickering flames and emergency lumen. An enormous expanse opened out before them, perhaps four hundred yards long and half as wide, the roof looming up into impenetrable creeping shadow.On both sides, enormous pillars as wide as a Dreadnought reared up, green with bubbling rot, and beyond them were banks of Cogitators and vid-screens, many dead, others flashing with mechanical and electronic life. The light of the flames created dancing shadows around them while the red lighting gave the false impression that everything within was splashed in gore.Like the nave of a cathedral, or the baroque interior of an ancient voidship, the way stretched out before them, and at the end of it a dais rose up to a mighty throne, made of skulls and other bones, held together with skeins of decaying flesh, boiling with putrescence. The very air dripped with malice and anger, the stench of an unquiet grave.From this macabre throne, a towering figure of black and scarlet rose. Its great wings extended thirty feet across, and out of the stench and the darkness two eyes burned, blacker than the darkness surrounding them. In a cruel voice, "The Witness" welcomed Marneus Calgar to his dominion and called him brother. Such was the malice radiating from the Daemon Prince that despite their Ordo Malleus training, Drake's men began to cry out in terror or fall to their knees and pray to the God-Emperor.Having toyed so long with its prey, the Daemon Prince's gaze fell upon Calgar with undiscerned hunger, for here was the prize "The Witness" had sought for his restored glory: the corruption or death of a fellow Chapter Master, a Chapter directly born of the First Founding.The thing that had once been Chapter Master Phrynon of the Viridian Consuls was strangely talkative, raging at his Chapter's betrayal by an uncaring Imperium of Man. The Daemon Prince explained how their desperate struggle had lasted centuries before recognising that the Emperor was a false god and that His dream was doomed to fail.For his part, Calgar couldn't have cared less for the tales of self-justification the master of The Broken was spinning, for he knew he was staring at the very incarnation of evil. The Ultramarines Chapter Master confronted the creature with words of righteousness and valor, berating Phrynon for having let himself succumb to the dark temptations of Chaos rather than die fighting as a Space Marine should. This seemed to anger The Witness even more, his flesh glowing red, his body radiating hatred and heat. The Daemon Prince heaved his immense, smoke-wreathed blade into the air, ready to strike at Calgar.More a symbolic act than a true attack, the Ultramarines Chapter Master saw the blow coming. Raising one of his fists and the Gauntlet of Ultramar it was wielding, Calgar met the blow. The shockwave caused by the two weapons' impact was enormous, strong enough to knock the other Ultramarines off their feet. Calgar himself was forced down to one of his knees, the Witness' hellish blade sliding along the thick armour of the Gauntlets and sheering away the built-in Bolter whose ammunition began to cook and explode between the two combatants.Facing such a mighty weapon as a Gauntlet of Ultramar, even the Witness' daemonic blade was no match and it broke in two. Roaring the name of his Primarch, Marneus Calgar raised his other fist and unleashed the fury of his remaining Bolter at the Witness, forcing the creature to take a step back. Throwing away the shards of its blade, the Witness extended his claws, gnashed his fangs and beat his wings as a wild animal ready to charge. The true fight had begun.The Daemon Prince charged, both gigantic fists sweeping low, thundering into the Chapter Master and flinging him against the throneroom's far wall. His Artificer Armour sizzling and helm badly dented, Calgar was still lying on the floor when the Witness reached him. Putting one of his great forked hooves upon Calgar's backpack, the Witness pinned the proud Chapter Master to the deck, and declared that how he would now offer to Calgar the same choice he had faced as the leader of the doomed Viridian Consuls -- kneel before the Chaos Gods, the true masters of all creation, or perish in the name of Khorne and Nurgle.Seeing the Daemon Prince standing over the Chapter Master, Inquisitor Drake mobilised his psychic gifts and reached out for Brother Ulfius' mind. Brother Ulfius, he implored the Ultramarine Librarian, you must come to us, all of you. He is going to die here. Calgar needs your help.Still dazed by the Daemon Prince's blows, the Chapter Master forced the hooved foot away and rose unsteadily to his feet. His ancient armour might have been broken and blood flowed freely from his many wounds, but the Lord of Ultramar was far from vanquished.