Chapter 97 Planet Medusa

Vane whipped out a Linking Book, instantly teleporting himself, the Emperor, Eldrad, and Trajann’s Custodian escort directly into the Webway’s central hub—the Impossible City.

“We’ve arrived at the Impossible City?” Glancing around the ruined Aeldari metropolis, taking in the ancient skeletal remains and shattered vehicles left over from the War Within the Webway ten millennia ago, the Emperor’s face filled with profound nostalgia.

Back when the Imperial Webway forces had been forced to retreat and hold the line at the Impossible City, Tribune Ra Endymion had desperately hoped the Emperor could briefly leave the Golden Throne to reinforce them. But at the time, the Emperor had been using every last ounce of his psychic might to suppress the Webway breach. He physically couldn’t leave, forcing him to refuse the plea.

Later, when the situation had completely collapsed, he had sacrificed a thousand psykers just to buy himself a brief window to enter the Webway, dueling the daemon Drach’nyen—the ‘First Murder’—to cover the retreat of the surviving Imperial forces.

“This is indeed the Impossible City,” Eldrad confirmed, recognizing the ancient architecture.

“Trajann, scan the local comm frequencies. Get whatever nearby troops are out there to come pick us up.” Vane had already spotted a few green blips representing friendly forces on his minimap, but he absolutely couldn’t be bothered to walk that far.

“There are Imperial forces in this sector?” Trajann asked, sounding genuinely bewildered. Even so, he followed Vane’s orders and swept the local frequencies.

Sure enough, he actually got a hit.

After a brief exchange over the vox, the other side confirmed they were dispatching an aerial transport to pick them up.

Not long after, a squadron of Overlord Gunships bearing the twin-headed aquila roared into view. Amidst the deafening roar of thrusters, the gunships slowly touched down in a nearby clearing. An Imperial officer led a squad of soldiers down the assault ramp.

The exact second they laid eyes on Vane, they started screaming in absolute, fanatical excitement.

“Forefather!”

“Forefather!”

Completely ignored, Trajann and the Custodes felt their mouths violently twitch. They silently tightened their grips on their guardian spears.

Do these blind bastards only have eyes for the Forefather?! Are they completely ignoring The Emperor and his Custodes?!

It was only after the officer finished screaming his lungs out that he finally noticed the golden-armored Emperor and the towering Custodes standing right there. He froze, a look of utter bewilderment crossing his face.

“The… God-Emperor?!”

Trajann let out a quiet sigh of relief. At least they finally recognized him.

The Captain-General stepped forward, booming a formal declaration to the ignorant mortals. “Standing before you is the Architect of the Imperium, the Protector of Civilization, the absolute and supreme Master of Mankind!”

The officer and his soldiers were instantly overwhelmed with emotion. They immediately dropped to one knee, fervently pledging their absolute loyalty to the Emperor.

“I can’t believe the Forefather actually managed to heal the God-Emperor! The Forefather is absolutely incredible!”

“God-Emperor, please lead us on another Great Crusade! While you were gone, those xenos and demons have been bullying us relentlessly!”

“God-Emperor, Lord Sanguinius said that the corrupt bureaucrats and nobles twisted your true will and actively made us suffer! Is that true?!”

“…”

It took quite a while for the officer and his men to finally calm down. Only then were Vane, the Emperor, and the rest of the entourage able to board the gunship and head for the Imperial warship parked in orbit.

Before stepping foot on the Imperial warship, the Emperor made a brief appearance. The absolute second the crew and officers saw him, they broke down into hysterical, weeping messes.

They knew the Forefather had led a pilgrimage to Terra specifically to save The Emperor, but actually seeing the Master of Mankind walking among them with their own eyes was entirely overwhelming.

In this grim, apocalyptic era, the Emperor’s return meant the dawn was finally breaking. Those detestable xenos and Warp-spawned demons would never be able to slaughter them with impunity ever again.

After letting the officers and crew cry it out and calming them down, Vane ordered the ship to immediately break orbit and chart a course for Medusa.

Vane originally only intended to commandeer that single vessel. But the absolute second the surrounding Imperial fleet caught wind that the Forefather and the Emperor were heading to Medusa, every single ship immediately broke formation and tagged along, forming a massive, heavily armed armada.

—

The planet Medusa was located in the Imperium Nihilus. The system’s dying star was incredibly weak, barely casting enough light to illuminate the planet’s surface.

On top of that, Medusa was cursed with violently hyperactive tectonic plates and volcanic activity, meaning massive mountain ranges and entire oceans were routinely created and destroyed overnight.

Thanks to these hellish conditions, Medusa’s environment was insanely hostile, leaving only a tiny handful of stable regions where long-term settlement was actually possible. The majority of the native human clans survived by living inside massive, crawler-tracked mobile fortresses, constantly roaming the planet as nomadic convoys in desperate search of precious resources and temporary safe havens.

As the homeworld of a First Founding Chapter, the Iron Hands regularly recruited their Neophytes directly from these hardened nomadic clans.

Navigating through the Webway, Vane, the Emperor, and their massive fleet arrived at the edge of the Medusa system in record time.

Currently, the planet was under a brutal siege by Chaos forces.

Typhus the Traveler had led a massive coalition of Chaos warbands, including the Cleaved and the Purge, alongside a full company of his own Death Guard Legion, in an all-out planetary invasion to conquer Medusa.

Right now, the loyalist and traitor forces were locked in an apocalyptic, meat-grinder war, desperately fighting over Medusa’s orbital stations and critical planetary factorums.

“Have the fleet move in to reinforce the Iron Hands,” Vane ordered the ship captains.

Leaving the fleet to handle the space battle, Vane, the Emperor, and Eldrad teleported directly down to the planet’s surface.

The Gorgon’s skull and remains were enshrined deep within a sacred Mechanicus temple located at the very heart of the Iron Hands’ fortress-monastery.

Vane couldn’t be bothered to waste time walking, so he just punched in the coordinates and dropped a portal right at the fortress-monastery’s front gates.

Naturally, suddenly materializing an unannounced teleportation strike force right in front of a Space Marine stronghold instantly triggered a massive retaliatory barrage from the Iron Hands’ automated defense turrets.

Considering Typhus was literally parked in orbit, there was no way in hell the Iron Hands were going to take chances on whether a sudden teleportation strike was friendly or a Chaos boarding party.

Shoot first, ask questions never.

The Emperor calmly projected his immense psychic might, erecting an absolute, indestructible kinetic barrier that effortlessly absorbed the barrage. Taking advantage of the pause in the gunfire, Trajann immediately stepped forward and loudly announced their identities, forcing the Iron Hands to completely cease fire.

Standing in the back, Eldrad felt completely speechless.

Seriously, would it have killed you guys to send a Vox transmission first?! You just actively provoked an assault on a heavily fortified Space Marine citadel!