Broken, The - Conclave: The figure that awaited Calgar was that of a heavily augmented human. His lower limbs had been replaced by four arthropod-like legs, very much like those of a spider. These made the Magos Dominus taller than the Chapter Master had expected. Mechadendrites and other additional limbs had been added to its upper torso, some of them hidden by a ragged robe of Martian red, the sacred color of the priesthood of the Omnissiah. While the Magos hid its weapons so as not to provoke Calgar, the Chapter Master's heightened senses easily perceived them, recognizing the bulky form of an Arc Pistol and the characteristic hum of a Plasma Weapon.Whoever this Hagnon-Cro was, he had come garbed for war and was better armed than most of his Mechanicus counterparts. More important, one of his many limbs held a staff of office bearing the pure, unaltered form of the Cog Mechanicum. Sensing no corruption in him, Calgar stayed his hand and let the cyborg Tech-priest talk.Hagnon-Cro greeted the Chapter Master with the detachment so typical of the senior Magi of the Martian priesthood. Within the first solar minute of the parley, Magos Dominus confessed that he had been forced to kill Brother Honorus, a loss Hagnon-Cro professed to deeply regret, as he regretted ordering the attack on the positions of 7th Company. It took all of Calgar's self-control not to activate the Gauntlets of Ultramar and bash the Magos' skull in.Believing his continued survival after this admission was permission to continue, Hagnon-Cro explained how he and his followers had originally been sent into the Eye of Terror to capture a living planet and bend it to the will of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Marneus Calgar easily saw through his lies. While Magnon-Cro and his people were members of the Dark Mechanicus, they were indeed Renegades, seeking to regain control of the artefact they had created. For millennia they had toiled upon its soil, the currents of the Warp and the planet's gravity slowly turning it into the Fury, a maneuverable space hulk.In the wake of the Abyssal Crusade, the corrupted remnants of the Viridian Consuls had attacked them, conquering the interior of the space hulk, forcing the Magos' followers to move to the outer layers. Both the Martian Renegades and the Broken lacked the strength to completely annihilate each other and claim the Fury as a whole.The unexpected arrival of the Ultramarines had threatened this balance of power. Believing the scions of Guilliman to also be corrupted Space Marines, the Renegade Mechanicus forces had attacked before recognising their error. Hagnon-Cro now intended to convince Marneus Calgar to join forces with his Renegades and defeat the Broken once and for all.The Chapter Master easily discerned the falsehood in the magos' words. Whilst Hagnon-Cro's reaction to the Ultramarines' arrival might have been an honest mistake, Marneus Calgar did not believe for one solar second that the Magos Dominus' true intention was to defeat the Broken and destroy the Fury as he claimed. The untimely arrival of the Ultramarines merely had upset the fragile balance of power that existed on the space hulk -- both factions were too weak to simply annihilate one another and claim the Fury as their own.As much as he abhorred it, the discussion with the Magos Dominus was wielding its fair share of mission-sensitive information. While the Broken posed a threat, they were not numerous enough to eradicate the Dominus' own forces, which gave Calgar an estimate of their true numbers. Second, the Magos Dominus was able to confirm that the Renegades they had encountered thus far were indeed remnants of the Viridian Consuls and that they were still led by their former Chapter Master who had been elevated to the rank of Daemon Prince by his dark patrons.Most importantly, Marneus Calgar had learned the true intentions of this Daemon Prince, "The Witness" -- to lure the Ultramarines into the heart of the Fury, defeat Calgar and present him as a dark offering to his baleful gods. The Ultramarines were marching into a trap.Despite his misgivings, Calgar knew he had little choice in the matter. The grim mathematics of war predicted the Ultramarines' defeat. Even if he agreed to the Magos' proposal of joining forces, the chances of victory were slim at best. Since the days of their Primarch, the Ultramarines' motto had always been "Courage and Honor", as the Chapter was convinced that those two qualities were sufficient to overcome any foe. Now, Marneus Calgar was about to betray that credo. Praying to Roboute Guilliman for forgiveness, Calgar entered into a devil's bargain with the Renegade Tech-priest.The Chapter Master's decision to ally with those who had previously been their enemies did not sit well with the officers of the 5th Company. Chaplain Morturius was especially vocal about his distaste, but Marneus Calgar did not break his word once given.As a gesture of good faith, the Ultramarines let the Magos Dominus' forces lead the way. For almost a solar hour, several hundred Weapon Servitors, Skitarii, Sagitarii, Kataphron Battle Servitors and Kastelan Robots filed before the Imperial column, the Ultramarines not breaking up their firing positions as their "allies" passed by.In truth, Marneus Calgar did not trust Magos Dominus Hagnon-Cro. Having atrophied over the millennia, the tactical acumen of Hagnon-Cro was a far cry from that of the Lord of Ultramar. The Renegade Magos wanted to assail the central keep frontally, an undoubtedly costly venture.However, thanks to Inquisitor Drake's forward position, the Ultramarines already had eyes on their target, an advantage the Magos Dominus lacked. Still undetected, Drake's team had discovered a secondary entrance away from the Blood Keep's primary gate. This was a possible ingress into the keep for a small party.Marneus Calgar chose not to share this information with any Mechanicus-representatives, as even Magos Explorator Fane's Tech-priests had visibly passed under the authority of Hagnon-Cro. The Ultramarines agreed to spring the trap and to turn it against their opponents. While 5th Company under Captain Galenus supported Hagnon-Cro's frontal attack, Marneus Calgar would lead a small team in a decapitation strike against The Witness.As the keep no doubt harboured all the essential systems required to control the Fury, Inquisitor Drake's infiltrators would follow in Calgar's wake and try to destroy the space hulk before Hagnon-Cro could seize control of it. While this surely meant death, none of the Ultramarines flinched at the prospect.