HANDS OF THE EMPEROR
ROB SANDERS

The cavernous corridors of the Imperial Palace echoed with the rhythmic clatter of armour plate. The foot knights of the Legio Custodes marched with brazen purpose, the synchronised movement of ceramite and gold an elevated heartbeat in the hallowed halls. It was the sound of tranquil urgency - of vigilance, noble and true.
Shield-Captain Enobar Stentonox was part of that vigilance, and had been for a long time. Today was different, however. Today he felt his own heart beating to the same rhythm as his marching step. Today he had the Palace watch: his first. For twenty-four hours, the security of the Imperial Palace - and by extension, of the Emperor himself - was in Stentonox's hands.
More than just a wonder crafted in blood and stone, the colossal Palace was many things to many people. To the Custodian Guard it was both security-sanctum and protectorate. To the primarch Rogal Dorn it was a bastion to fortify. To the army of ambassadors and Administratum officials that swarmed its halls, it was the heart of human governance. To the trillions of citizens on Ancient Terra and the worlds beyond, it was the centre of the known galaxy. As Master of the Watch, Stentonox would need to meet the competing demands of such roles, whilst maintaining the inviolate preservation of the Emperor's person within the Palace's mighty walls.
The shield-captain's steps were long with pride, but also heavy - not just with the ceremonial bulk of his plate, but also the crushing burden of his responsibilities. As his rattling stride took him through the Belvedereon Great Hall, he passed a marble statue of the Emperor. Couched in metaphor, it depicted the Emperor at the Declaration of Unity, balancing Terra upon one globed shoulder. For a moment, Stentonox allowed himself the indulgence of equating the honour and encumbrance to his own.
As the Great Hall became the Colonnade Simulacrux, Stentonox's march fell into step with the party of Custodians making their brisk way up the vaulted and pillar-lined passage. The architectural theme of the Great Hall had spilled out into the colossal space, and many heroes of the Unification Wars - including members of the Emperor's personal guard - were immortalised in the stone of the columns. One of these giants also strode up the grand colonnade in the flesh, leading the party that Stentonox had joined.
Constantin Valdor.
A loyal Terran, Captain-General of the Legio Custodes and Chief Custodian of the Emperor of Mankind - in that order - he walked the lofty corridors of his master's fortified palace. Brazier light dappled the golden brilliance of his battleplate, while the red of his robes honoured the blood historically spilled in the effort to safeguard his Emperor.
Stentonox suspected that there would be a great deal more blood spilled in the near future.
Flanked by members of his Ares Guard, Valdor was attended upon, at Stentonox's arrangement, by the Sentinel-Securitas Justinian Arcadius. Like a small continent, the dimensions of the Palace were broad and wide, but the Captain-General's itinerarium - known only to a few, including the Master of the Watch - now placed Valdor in the Upper Ward, which was where Stentonox had intended to meet him for the dawn report. Like a wall of beaten bronze perpetually at their back, the Custodian Dreadnought lndemnion trampled up the corridor with hydraulic menace. Its aged hull streamed with the aegis honours and ribbon banners of its own decorated service to the Emperor.
Despite the early hour. the Captain-General had a smile for Stentonox, though the shield-captain doubted that Valdor had seen the inside of his personal chambers in several days. 'Your first Palace watch?'
'Yes, Captain-General,' Stentonox confirmed.
'Then I wish you a quiet duty,' Valdor said. 'Though they rarely are.'
'If you have any advice to offer, Captain-General, then I would be glad of its guidance.'
The Chief Custodian grunted with good humour. 'Don't get too attached to your protocols and regulata. Schedules are usually shattered by the second hour. Think of the solemn observance of our responsibilities as written in stone - but freshly inscribed in volcanic rock. Each day brings new challenges that test our routines, fresh eruptions that turn the cold certainty of ritual and order to situations that are fast moving and fluid. You must live the contradiction of being adaptable, and yet unyielding. And know that the word that will fall from your lips most often today will be "no". Anything else, shield-captain?'
'No, Chief Custodian.'
'Then let us proceed with the dawn report.'
As Stentonox took his Captain-General through the matters of the day, with Arcadias filling in the blanks, his mind moved from one weighty consideration to another. The morning alone was an agitated crowd of duties and responsibilities to push through, each vying for his urgent attention. There were defensive vulnerabilities created by the Warmason's work on the Byzan Wall. One of Valdor's auricenvoys, Abhorsiax, was returning from Old Aethiopia, where the Chief Custodian had sent him to arbitrate the labour wars that had broken out between the Danakil mineral conglomerates and Hive Abyssin. The recently trialled protectorate rotations operating out of the Dolorite quad-bastions still required refinement. Consuls from the Collegia Titanica were requesting a baptismal Palace walk-by, involving the newly constructed Warlord-class Battle Titan Vigilantia Victrum, which the Chief Custodian was almost certain to reject out of committee. Papers, references and pict-files on the forty or so Palace sub-ambassador appointees still required the Chief Custodian's seal. A consignment of breaching munitions due for delivery to the Palace armouries had understandably not materialised from Mars, but the consignment's replacement order had similarly not arrived on schedule from the forge world of Phaeton. The Legio Custodes fleet of orbital monitors were well overdue an inspection. The Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites had requested an audience to discuss the dangers posed by a number of seditionist movements, all speaking against the Emperor, as well as a recent incident involving a troubled citizen firing a shot at one Palace's street-level barbicans, only to be killed in return fire by the Custodian foot knight on duty there. Witchseekers of the Silent Sisterhood were convening to discuss the maintenance of the Palace defences that no one could actually see - the Emperor's immaterial security measures. Beyond these existing matters of gravity, both Stentonox, as the Master of the Watch, and the Chief Custodian had several dozen lesser meetings and consultation sessions - more, now that the shield-captain had completed his watch report.
'Thank you,' Valdor said to the shield-captain. 'Arcadius, is there anything else?'
As the sentinel-securitas checked his lists, their group approached a towering sentry gate. The arch's barricade was raised and hung over a pair of Aquila Terminators like a bad omen. The bulkheads were one of the many improvements that Rogal Dorn had approved for the Palace interior. Every grand design and architectural flourish now had to be adapted to new purpose: the high, decorative archways occurring at intervals down the arterial corridors were now tri-layered barricade-bulkheads, that would come down in the event of wall-breaches and slow the advance of an enemy force through the Palace.
The sentries bowed low - despite it being difficult to do so in their Tactical Dreadnought plate - and rested their helmets against the ceremonial halberds they clutched before them. As the Captain-General, sentinel-securitas and Master of the Watch passed, the pair rose back to their impressive height, resuming their silent vigil like gargoyles.
Arcadias only had one other order of business: a report that Stentonox had requested himself.
'The nodical-session Blood Games are almost at an end,' Arcadius told them, and Valdor nodded with approval. With intelligence pointing to a security threat that was only growing in imminence, the Captain General had doubled the theatre-diagnostic, pitting the best he had from the ranks of the Legio Custodes against the Palace defences. The sentinel-securitas examined both failures and near-successes to anticipate possible enemy strategies and review the Emperor's security. With the galaxy in turmoil and Valdor's days increasingly dominated by actual threats rather than hypothetical ones, the Chief Custodian had less time for the tactical rituals. It had been Stentonox's relative success in a previous round of the Blood Games that had elevated him to shield-captain, and he thought to rekindle the Chief Custodian's appetite for updates. It had worked.
'Any surprises?' Valdor asked.
'Jerichstein was intercepted in Hive Persepol,' Arcadius confirmed. 'Ran into some trouble with an entire precinct of Arbitrators. Nicator was taken by one of our gunships during a pursuit over the Caucasus. A servo-drone picked up Einocratus while mapping a section of ancient sewerage trenches beneath the Palace. The Fourth Ward fire was started by Caesarion, and Gesh was responsible for the Black Sentinels and foot knights missing from their sentry-points in the hanging gardens. But they both failed isometrics at the Cantica-Consentrica, Barbican East. I fear they were working together, which is of course prohibited by the rules of the Games.'
'The enemy won't play by our rules,' Valdor said. 'Will they, Stentonox?'
'It is difficult enough to get our allies to do so, most of the time,' the shield-captain offered.
'Exactly,' Valdor agreed.
'Which is why I've taken the unusual step of both commending and censuring the pair of them simultaneously,' Arcadius said.
Valdor laughed. 'Kalibos?'
Taken climbing the Maximillias Wall - previously identified as a weak spot in our surveillance,' the sentinel-securitas informed Valdor.
'Did you not favour the Maximillias Wall with your infiltration?' the Chief Custodian asked Stentonox.
'The Espartic Wall, my lord.'
'Not an easy climb,' Valdor said.
'Difficult by design. Soon to be made impossible,' Stentonox said, nodding to Arcadius and adding a mental note to his duties for the day.
'But Kalibos was taken?'
Arcadias confirmed it. 'But he did not concede easily. Four of my sentinels are in the infirmatory.'
'And Zantini?'
'Made it through to the Halls Econium disguised as a plenipotente from the Technovingian Sovereignty, but the new frequency fields installed beneath the flags unmasked him.'
'But they're getting closer,' Valdor admitted.
'Their near-successes honour us,' Arcadius said. 'But with every cycle of the Games we learn more of the arts of infiltration. The weaknesses and complacencies our enemies will use against us.'
'Any Custodians outstanding?'
'One,' Arcadius told Valdor and the shield-captain. 'Belisarius.'
Stentonox prided himself on knowing all of the Custodians he worked with, but he knew some better than others, and Belisarius he barely knew at all.
'His genotrace was identified by syn-grids in the Kaspasian Basin,' Arcadius continued, 'at Sinai-Persis and Hive Saqqara. Travelling west, away from the Palace. Perhaps his approach was compromised by these recent captures.'
As they approached the giant statue-lined galleries of the Bronze Arcade, the burnished doors of the Heliosicon Tower parted to reveal the large grav-carriage and its pair of passengers. Sister-Commandress Duesstra Edelstyne was a blistering vision in silver plate and rich furs.
An ornate half-helm covered her stapled lips, the vaulting nose guard of which cut between the dark intensity of her eyes. At her side stood a shaven-headed novice glossator.
As a Sister of Silence, Edelstyne was Confidente-Tranquil to Lady Krole herself and ranking maiden among the Raptor Guard allocated to the Palace's First Ward. Her sisters were stationed throughout, attending meetings in silence and standing sentinel in the halls and corridors, not unlike their Custodian counterparts; in many ways, her role was analogous to Stentonox's own. While providing empyreal protection in the Palace against witchbreeds and their invasive, immaterial probings, the Sisterhood's warriors were also welcome additions to the Palace security forces.
But this necessitated coordination, and an obligatory meeting Edelstyne and the Master of the Watch. Stentonox had scheduled the time and the place but this was neither. He acknowledged the silent stab of her glare with a nod, but turned his attention back to the Chief Custodian. 'Sounds like Belisarius just doesn't want the game to end,' Valdor said.
'But then again, who does? Monitor his progress. Keep me posted.'
Arcadius nodded. 'Thank, Chief Custodian.'
'And good luck to you, shield-captain'.
'Thank you, Captain-General,' replied Stentonox. He saluted before Valdor, Indemnion and the Ares Guard peeled off into a chasmal corridor.
'Commandress,' Stentonox boomed across the arcade. 'What can I do for you?'
Her gauntlets signed out a rapid series of gestures, the speed and insistency of which even the shield-captain could interpret as urgent. From the tender lips of the novice glossator came the translation.
'Shield-Captain Stentonox. There is something you should see.'

The heliosicon tower was one of the tallest thrusting skyward from the Imperial Palace. It was so called because of the views it commanded of the Terran sun rising above the chromatic haze of atmospheric pollution. The bulbous minaret at the top boasted not only its own donjon and signum-complex, but also crenellated terraces outfitted both decoratively for observation, and defensively with interceptor missile launchers.
As the bronze doors slid open, Stenonox strode out onto the first terrace, accompanied by Arcadius and the two women. A Custodian tower sentry fell briefly to one knee as the Master of the Watch passed, but Edelstyne and her novice followed without acknowledgement, the sunlight glinting off their polished battle plate. Edelstyne signed.
'There.' The novice glossator pointed out to the south-west.
Stentonox followed her direction out over the haze, across the excavation-mauled plateaus of the Himalazia. Something was emerging from the tarnished clouds beyond. Something huge.
From its size, it could only be one of Terra's great orbital plates, grazing the planet's upper atmosphere and moving slowly, but surely, over the mountain peaks. While each orbital plate was different - no less the victims of hideous engineering enhancements and ungainly accretions than the hives that housed billions at ground level - this one reminded Stentonox of some colossal, flattened jellyfish. The greater metropol-platform was like a parasol, with a nest of sky docks, stratomoorings and the orbital's gravitic engine column hanging down through the clouds beneath it. From the shape of its silhouetted outline, the colossal plate looked like Arcus, one of the smaller orbital conurbatia.
What alarmed the shield-captain was the fact that the swarm of tugs and shunt-craft manoeuvring the humongous plate seemed to be dragging it towards the Imperial Palace.
Stentonox and Arcadius exchanged glances of simultaneous realisation and alarm.
'Patch me through to the signum-complex,' the shield-captain ordered. Arcadius nodded and conferred briefly with the tower sentry.
A voice came across the encrypted vox-channel. 'Signata-Heliosicon for the Master of the Watch.'
'This is Shield-Captain Enobar Stentonox,' he replied. 'ldent - Tarantis, Halcyon, three-fifty-two, sixty-four. Confirm.'
'Confirmed, shield-captain. Standing by.'
'Heliosicon,' Stentonox said. 'I am on the battle-terraces of your tower and I am looking at what appears to be an orbital about to breach both Palace air and void-space. Confirm for me, please'.
'Confirmed, shield-captain. We have orbital plate Arcus on a Himalazian approach vector.'
'Negative, Heliosicon lower, negative. Orbital plates do not have trajectory clearance to pass over the Imperial Palace'.
'Arcus Orbital has clearance, shield-captain,' the tower voxed back. 'Special dispensatorial order, Metacarp Three-Sixteen.'
'Clarify, special order, tower.'
'That's a Legiones Astartes code,' Arcadius told Stentonox. 'Imperial Fists. It'll be the Warmason, or Dorn himself.'
'Tower, I am Master of the Watch - how could I not have been informed of this?' The vox went silent. 'Heliosicon Tower, respond.'
'We're collating that data for you now-'
'No,' Stentonox interrupted. 'Connect me to the ranking authority on Arcus right now.'
'Yes, shield-captain'.
'This is a mistake,' Stentonox told Arcadius, his voice threaded with steely authority. 'An oversight of monumental proportions. I want to know how this happened.'
Under the stabbing glare of Duesstra Edelstyne, Stentonox waited, the orbital plate moving through the clouds, kilometre by kilometre, into the Palace's airspace. At first. Stentonox was patched through to the orbital's stratoport admiral, who could not help him; then through a selection of gubernatorials, proctors and berg marshals who claimed that their authority on the plate had been superseded. Finally, with his anger rising, Stentonox was connected to the high commissary of the Danakil conglomerates, who told him that Arcus was currently under their mercantile sovereignty.
'Commissary,' Stentonox voxed, making each word sharp and clear. 'This is Shield-Captain Enobar Stentonox of the Legio Custodes. I am giving you a direct order - cease your approach. Your vector and presence in our airspace have not been cleared with us. You are in violation of aegis protocols and imperata of the highest-'
'Heliosicon Tower,' a voice intruded, as deep and sharp as Stentonox's own. 'This is Captain Demetrius Katafalque of the Imperial Fists Legion. I am in command aboard Arcus. This orbital will not slow or alter its vector. My orders are to see us in anchorage above the Fourth Ward and the concentrica between the inner and outer walls. These are my primarch's orders and it is not for me to deny them. Check your protocols, Heliosicon Tower. Check your protocols.'
'Arcadias?' Stentonox said grimly.
The sentinel-securitas turned from his conference with the tower sentry and the signum-complex.
'Special dispensatorial order "Metacarp Three-Sixteen" authorises Arcus to moor above the Palace and supply millions of workers from the Danakil mineral conglomerates to the Warmason Vadok Singh, for the purposes of improving the Palace fortifications,' Arcadias reported. 'The orbital is to remain, providing mobile quarters for the imported workforce.'
Stentonox shook his head. 'How could we not know about this?'
'Metacarp Three-Sixteen is still in committee. Lord Dorn must be pushing ahead with the fortifications. It is unlikely that the primarch will be denied, given the present situation, but an objection was lodged with the Administrator Primus and a hearing scheduled. We have not been informed, because Three-Sixteen has not yet been authorised.'
'Who lodged the objection?' Stentonox asked.
After a moment's further clarification, the sentinel-securitas told him. 'Luna did - Lady Krole of the Silent Sisterhood.'
The pair of Custodians turned to Duesstra Edelstyne- The commandress gave a shrug of her armoured shoulders that needed no translation.
'Captain Katafalque,' Stentonox voxed. This is Enobar Stentonox, Master of the Watch. Your breach of our airspace puts the Imperial Palace and the Emperor at intolerable risk. The orbital plate Arcus is not authorised to be here. I urge you, captain - order your tugs to take Arcus away from this approach vector.'
'Rogal Dorn does not have time to waste on your meaningless bureaucracy,' Katafalque returned brusquely. 'Permissions have been sought. Check your protocols. I have authorisation from my primarch, just as he has authorisation to fortify the Imperial Palace. These are my orders.'
'I cannot allow-'
'These are my orders,' Katafalque repeated, 'and I intend to follow them. I have no more choice in that than the sun has in rising above the horizon. Do what you must, shield-captain. This is Arcus, inbound on vector-Himalazia. Katafalque out.'
'Katafalque!' Stentonox called down the vox, but the Imperial Fist was gone.
Stentonox didn't speak for a few moments. Both Arcadias and Edelstyne stared at the shield-captain in silence as Stentonox glared at the distant orbital plate.
'Arcadias.'
'Yes, shield-captain.'
'Contact Damari Ambramagne aboard the Aeriax,' Stentonox ordered. 'Tell him I want all available Legio Custodes gun-skiffs on station above the Fourth Ward, vector-Himalazia.'
Arcadias nodded, but said nothing.
'You think it premature?' Stentonox asked.
'No, shield-captain.'
'Good, because next I want you to signal-crash the Palace. Take us to Defence Readiness Xanthus. All Custodians, Sisters, armsmen and... aye, even the Imperial Fists, are to assume their alert postings, and await further orders.'
'What about the Chief Custodian?'
'Inform him of our defence readiness and status,' Stentonox said, his instructions heavy with the accountability they carried. 'And ask him to attend me on the battlements, for it is he who shall be issuing those orders.'

***

As the orbtial plate descended, it eclipsed the bleak light of the rising sun. The Palace citadels and towers - having felt the reaching touch of dawn's light - were now plunged back into gloom. Terraces, parapets and balconades were crowded with Palace officiates and visitors, all alerted to the emergency by the sounding of situation-Xanthus alarms and the rapid movement of Palace defence forces. Viewing glasses, magnoculars and fearful faces were directed skywards to the monstrous approach of Arcus and the triple-tier lines of engagement being formed by the Legio Custodes gunships.
Like a wall of gold plate, ornamentation and ordnance, the gun-skiffs, stratobastia and grav-monitors of the Legio Custodes extended the Palace defences into the sky. The battle line was pugnacious and imposing. The craft held position above the slums and conurbatia bordering the outer fortifications and walled enclaves of the Palace, and presented their ornate gunnery to Arcus.
The colossal size of the orbital plate put it into an altogether different target category. As Arcus's approach swiftly became the unstoppable force to the gun-skiffs' immovable line of defence, a chorus of consternation rose from the gathered crowds upon the battlements and platforms of the Palace.
From the flight deck of the Aeriax, Stentonox could survey the under-plate of Arcus. Leaving the sentinel-securitas to manage defence readiness about the Palace, Stentonox had accompanied the Chief Custodian up to the gun-skiff. Constantin Valdor had been in hololithic conference with Demetrius Katafalque of the Imperial Fists for only a few minutes, but the Captain-General was already infuriated. Pledges of mutual respect and fraternity descended quickly into a debate as to what was in the best interests of the Emperor's security. Katafalque claimed that his primarch's word was inviolable. Valdor reminded the captain that the Imperial Fists were welcome guests on Terra, but that the Emperor's security - and that of the Imperial Palace - had ever been the principal concern of the Legio Custodes. Anger got the better of men who should have been above such pettiness. Insults fell from noble lips. Threats were exchanged. Punishments were promised.
'He's gone again, my lord,' a deck menial reported as the link was cut.
'Damn the Legiones Astartes and their upstart pride,' Valdor seethed.
'If it were not for such audacity there would be no need to fortify the Emperor's Palace at all.'
'Indeed, Chief Custodian,' agreed Stentonox.
'No service,' Valdor said, 'even one assumed in a master's name, should imperil the master served.'
'Yes, my lord.'
'It is madness,' Valdor muttered, almost to himself. 'It's officious madness, and it must be stopped.'
'What are your orders, Captain-General?'
Valdor stared out across the flight deck of the Aeriax. The sky was gone. There was only the orbital plate - its stratomoorings, skydocks and platforms creeping irresistibly towards them, dominating the deck view. 'The tugs and tenders?' he asked.
'I have gunships standing by to board or cripple them,' Stentonox reported. 'But in truth, inertial drift alone will carry Arcus to anchorage above the Fourth Ward.'
'Then let us not waste time with that,' Valdor said. 'Opinion, shield-captain?'
'Calibrated reversal of Arcus's gravitic drives will slow the orbital before bringing it to a stop.'
Valdor nodded gravely. Nobody on the flight deck spoke as the Chief Custodian weighed danger against danger. The decision did not come easily to the Captain-General, but when it did it was delivered with confidence and grim determination.
'Shield-captain?'
'Yes, sir?'
'Seize the plate.'

In a slow broadside of gold, their grav-attack craft streamed away from the launch bays of the Legio Custodes ships; the stately battle line was a vision to behold as it closed upon the great gravitic engine column and passed below the orbital under-plate. Through his transport's gunnery embrasure, Shield-Captain Stentonox caught sight of thousands of indentured workers watching in horror from the projecting observation decks. Stentonox could only imagine the confusion of the common man, as the reverent servants of the Emperor went head to head in the skies over Terra.
He would preferred to have made a more direct insertion, but could not risk taking his grav-transports any closer to the structure. The powerful inverse fields fluxing about the gravitic drives and suspensor vanes would play havoc with the polarity of their own power plants. Stentonox had been warned that the grav-attacks could literally drop out of the sky - therefore, a safer, if less convenient, insertion site had been identified. The Legio Custodes would simply have to advance through the generatorium decks and take the engineering section at the head of the column by force.
'Custodian,' Stentonox said to Gustus Doloran, his Cataphractii sergeant-at-arms. 'Extend Captain Katafalque my compliments and inform him that I intend to fire upon Arcus. Tell him that for the safety of his warriors, he should withdraw from the shell sections and platforms about the engine column.'
'Very good, sir,' Doloran replied from the depths of his golden Terminator plate.
Stentonox was confronted with an almost impossible task - here, on the orbital plate, he would need to combine his many years of both combat training and diplomacy. Constantin Valdor had commanded that Arcus be taken, but Stentonox was fully aware that in these times of distrust and rebellion, he could not afford to slaughter the VII Legion above the Imperial Palace. Like the pugilist paid to throw the fight, he would have to pull his punches.
Unlike the pugilist, he still needed to win. A victory swift and unequivocal.
The impending action was a logistical and diplomatic nightmare. It made the shield-captain's mind ache with the unruly possibilities of chance.
'No reply from the plate, sir,' the sergeant-at-arms reported.
Stentonox nodded. 'Tell Captain Ambramagne that he is cleared to fire.'
'Very good, sir.'
'And open a channel to our attack craft, if you please.'
'Open, shield-captain.'
'Custodians, this is the Master of the Watch. We have a daunting task ahead of us, a task I expect you to carry out with your usual precision and determination. The Space Marines aboard Arcus are our allies, but they are operating outside their jurisdiction. It falls to us to assert the supreme authority of the Emperor of Mankind, even amongst his most loyal servants. We will do this by force, if required. Your Captain-General has ordered the orbital plate taken. It will be so, but you will take no life in the execution of such orders. There will be no killing. Those are my orders. I am invoking battle proprieties. As our comrades-at-arms, I want all Imperial Fists classed as decora-intelligenta. Come the conclusion of this unfortunate action they will be questioned, and they will be debriefed, but they will be alive. But while you should consider their lives sacred, their blood is not. Punish them as your pride dictates. We may break them, but we will not butcher them. The galaxy has witnessed enough of such endings.'
'Aeriax firing, shield-captain,' Sergeant Doloran informed him.
'Stand by,' Stentonox voxed. 'Ten seconds.'
A storm of fire erupted from the presented cannons of the skiffs and gunships, hammering into the shell plating of the engine column.
Thick beams and blasts turned the generatorum decks of the column into maelstroms of light, sound and twisted metal. With the gunners' aim avoiding any of the critical systems keeping the orbital plate afloat, the grav-attacks of the Legio Custodes followed the bombardment in through the surface shielding and the wreckage of the hull superstructure.
Arcus wasn't a military installation, and boasted no defensive weaponry of its own, but the atmospheric locks and thick metal shell of the exterior still presented an obstacle to arriving forces. In ordering the barrage, Stentonox had removed that obstacle.
'Custodians, disembark.'
The brazen doors of the grav-attack craft slid open. Foot knights, Custodians and Aquila Terminators stepped out into the inferno raging between the ruined decks. The reflected flames turned each warrior into a spectacle of blinding gold. Striding through the destruction, their towering helms scraping the ceiling and guardian spears cutting wreckage confidently from their path, the Custodians assumed formation on the blazing decks.
'Pattern Draco,' Stentonox ordered.
Moving away from the destruction and into the narrow corridors of the generatoria chambers, the invaders assumed a demi-sheltron formation, with foot knights hunkered and advancing through the engine column behind their thick, gilded shields, Custodian Guard squads aimed the boltguns of their power halberds across their comrades' pauldrons. Between them, Custodians in Cataphractii Terminator plate settled the barrel lengths of aquila-nozzled incinerators. Not only did the formation create a shield-wall for its conquering advance, but also extended a wall of flame that drove back potential defenders.
Moving with his command squad through the generatorium complex, Stentonox had Doloran relay his cautionary commands while Sergeant Memnon coordinated the advance.
'Anything?' Stentonox asked. It took a moment to recall confirmations from the advance teams spread out through the occupied decks.
'No contacts on auspex,' Doloran told him. 'No sightings.'
Stentonox grunted - that was either very good, or very bad. Demetrius Katafalque, confronted with the reality of an atmospheric assault and occupation of the plate, might have reconsidered his former bullishness, although Stentonox thought this unlikely. The Imperial Fists were experts in siege warfare, and in even the short window of opportunity provided, they could have mounted a determined defence. The narrow corridors of the generatoria were not without strategic virtue and Katafalque had, if he required, millions of indentured innocents to put between himself and the Custodians. With the passageways and engineering sections empty, it seemed that Katafalque had decided to make use of neither.
As he advanced, the shield-captain's unease grew. Following their explosive entrance, the Custodians' unimpeded progress had taken them through the silent decks, almost halfway to their destination. Even if Katafalque had acknowledged his courteous warning and withdrawn everyone from the outer sections, Stentonox would have expected some resistance by now. At this rate, their mission would be completed within minutes and Arcus force-anchored to a dead stop.
Stentonox's mind raced. This wasn't right.
He thought of Demetrius Katafalque, his predicament no more comfortable than the shield-captain's own. The Imperial Fists captain wanted loyalist blood on his gauntlets no more than Stentonox did. Like the shield-captain, Katafalque would recognise the conflict as a diplomatic nightmare,' perhaps, like Stentonox, he had also prohibited the use of deadly force. Taking the orbital plate under such restrictions was difficult enough. How could-
'Captain Katafalque's compliments, sir' said the sergeant-at-arms, announcing the opening of a new vox-channel.
'Connect us,' Stentonox said, as they entered the engineering section.
'Shield-captain.' The Imperial Fist's dour voice echoed about Stentonox's high-helm.
'Captain.'
'I extend the same courtesy that you did me,' Katafalque said. 'Withdraw your men from the engineering section. Now.'
'Demetrius, wait,' Stentonox called, but a burst of static told him that the captain was gone.
As step after armoured step took them closer to their objective, Stentonox tried to put himself in Katafalque's position. How would he stop the Custodian advance, without the wilful spilling of blood? The shield-captain's steps slowed. His visored helm drifted towards the deck.
'Sergeant-at-arms...'
'Yes, shield-cap-'
The detonations came from above and below. They were probably seismic charges, transported in with the indentured labour force for the Warmason's excavations, set into the perimeter of the structural deck and floor plating.
Metal groaned. Beams fractured. Secondary blasts erupted.
Six floors in the engineering section - through which the different Custodian teams were advancing - simply fell out of the orbital plate.
The timing was perfect. The deadweight of girders, decking and industrial machinery was dragged instantly downwards. There was no time for orders. No vox-transmissions.
As the deck fell away and the buckled ceiling came down to meet him, Stentonox fought against every instinct and moved towards the detonations. Two steps across the falling floor took him to within leaping distance of the chamber's edge - the jump was heavy and awkward, but it gave the shield-captain the lift he needed. Clawing at the wall with his gilded gauntlets, he latched onto a ragged ledge where the structural supports had been ripped away.
Hanging by his fingertips, Stentonox looked down. The mass of wreckage buckled and crumbled into sections, falling away with the damaged plate hull. Custodians scrambled. Some found their way to the outstretched gauntlets of their anchored comrades. Some were snatched back by rearguard warriors who had yet to enter the engineering section. The rest tumbled with the descending wreckage, holding on to floor sections or machinery as it fell through the bottom of the under-plate.
The shield-captain's arm shot out for a flailing foot knight toppling from the deck above and still clutching his shield. Stentonox snatched him out of the air, the digits of his gauntlet like a grapnel that buried themselves in the plates of the Custodian's armour. Heaving the warrior up to a hold on the ledge, Stentonox adjusted his own precarious grip.
It reminded him of the Espartic Wall - that torturous climb of one of the Palace's most challenging fortifications. Many veterans among their number been forced to scale such obstacles as part of the ritual Blood Games. Stentonox could only hope that their training had not been forgotten.
'Name?' Stentonox put to the foot knight beside him.
'Vega, sir.'
With one hand the Custodian took off his helmet and stared down at the dizzying vision of Terra that had opened up before them. He was shorter than most among the Legio Custodes, but squat and hungry for action. He spat his shock and disgust into the open void below.
Like other Custodians about the empty chamber's ragged perimeter, Stentonox heaved himself up to a more secure perch, and Vega did likewise. The wind howled about them. Beneath the orbital plate - kilometres beneath, in fact - the shield-captain could see the distant Himalazian landscape. Even from this height, he could make out the conurbatia bordering the concentric outer walls of the Imperial Palace.
The wreckage of the engineering decks disintegrated as it fell, crashing down along the busy architecture of the column's starboard side, scattering grav-foils, aerials and suspensor vanes. Stentonox tried to imagine the horror of those poor souls on the ground beneath them, looking up at this unfolding nightmare. He also watched his goldplated Custodians tumble and fall through the descending debris, their crimson cloaks whipping violently about them as they grew smaller and smaller to his eyes.
The immense energies of the gravitic drives exerted their pull upon wreckage as it reached the strongest part of the conical field beneath Arcus. Shrieking and grinding, and in total defiance of the laws of physics, the remains of the shattered decks billowed outwards, scattering the last of the tiny golden figures towards the column's surface before settling into a lazy, listless tumble around it. Rather than plummeting all the way to the surface and inflicting untold devastation at ground level, the debris began to orbit the orbital.
It was an incidental effect of the plate's construction, but one that would save the lives of Stentonox's men. For now, at least.
Some tried to angle their descent and kick away from twisted support struts and heavy metal decking. Instead of falling through screaming emptiness, they smashed through nests of antennae and vanes on the gravitic engine column itself. The shield-captain was horrified at those velocity-arresting impacts; the rending and crumpling of armour plate as Custodians came to a precarious stop, tangled in the busy column sensoria. One warrior outfitted in heavy Cataphractii plate crashed straight down through the mesh of several maintenance platforms before clawing his way to a halt on the shell plating of the column's lowermost point.
Then Stentonox saw Doloran, the sergeant-at-arms clinging like a bulky, brazen gargoyle to what was left of the ruined deck immediately below them.
'Transports,' the shield-captain called out across the vox. 'This is Stentonox. Custodians overboard. I repeat - Custodians overboard. Track suit signatures and attempt a vectored rescue. Advise caution, wreckage in the air.'
'Shield-captain,' a Custodian aboard one grav-attack replied. 'The fields about the gravitic column...'
Stentonox smacked an armoured fist against the metal of the wall section. 'Damn you,' he barked back. 'You will attempt an intervention. You will not put Legio Custodes transports or personnel at risk.'
'Received.'
Within moments, Stentonox saw the small swarm of transports dropping into view, their hulls turning with the vectored descent and the gravitic acceleration of their own engine coils.
'Custodians on the column,' Stentonox called across the open channel, with no idea if they could hear him or not, 'you are authorised to shed your plate, if required.' It was largely pointless advice, but it was all that he could give them. It might provide the warriors with something to concentrate on other than their impending death. 'In the event of freefall, use-'
Bolter fire suddenly cut through the cold air before the shield-captain. On the far side of the wind-screeching emptiness created by the missing engineering section, Imperial Fists Space Marines were assuming cover at the cranked doors and airlocks on each of the decks that had formerly led to the demolished section. Sparks showered Stentonox as another stream of disciplined fire impacted about him.
Stentonox shook his head. Demetrius Katafalque was a cold bastard. Even now, diplomatic protocols between the Legiones Astartes and the Emperor's Custodians should be maintained. Stentonox, the sergeant-at-arms and the rescued foot knight were all easy targets, clinging to the shattered walls - no challenge at all for the lethal aim of the Imperial Fists. Return fire from Custodian guardian spears hammered back at the sons of Dorn, mauling their blasted cover.
'Kill classifications are still in force,' Stentonox ordered across the vox. At the opposite end of the ruined section, foot knights with their shields provided cover for Custodian marksmen in the gaping passages and demolished decking.
'But captain-' Sergeant Memnon began.
'Battle proprieties, sergeant,' Stentonox returned. 'Those are my orders. Suppression fire only.'
'We can work our way around the section.'
'Negative. Hold position.' For all the Custodians knew, the Imperial Fists could have wired the entire quarter to blow and drop out of the bottom of the orbital plate. 'Sergeant Doloran, Custodian Vega - with me.'
Stentonox made a powered jump from the shattered ledge, across the howling open space and through the gunfire, down onto what was left of the lower deck and the sergeant-at-arms. He was swiftly followed by Vega, and the three of them edged their way along the jagged perimeter, swinging from several mauled struts before putting their boots down on solid decking. Above them the fire fight raged, bolter fire streaming back and forth across the open space, drumming into the ruined architecture.
Suddenly, the lights on the airlock in front of them began to flash, and the Custodians pulled back into the the section wreckage. The bulkhead cleared its seals, and a combat squad of Imperial Fists filed through, the bright yellow of their plate almost in itself a challenge.
They took up position on the shattered deck, ready to offer more suppression fire and seemingly oblivious to the intruders in their midst.
Erupting from the twisted metal and sparking machinery, Vega surprised the Space Marines; he deflected a couple of bolt-rounds with his shield before slamming the two nearest warriors back into the Wall, sending the barrels of their weapons wide.
Another Fist turned to find the sergeant-at-arms already at his side. A gilded fist smashed the Space Marine's faceplate, sending him back towards the lock. Tearing the ruined helm free, the Imperial Fist brought up his bolter, but Doloran already had his gauntlets on the weapon's casing, leaning in with the full weight of his Terminator armour. The sergeant smashed back with an elbow, slamming his opponent's skull off the compartment wall.
Of the two remaining squad members, the closest turned to find Stentonox standing behind him. The shield-captain's face betrayed a cold fury. A wild bolt-round sang off the sculpted gold of his pauldron, but Stentonox kicked out and knocked the Space Marine from the edge of the shattered deck and into the yawning drop beyond it.
Charging him back into a warrior that had wrestled himself free from behind Vega's shield, Stentonox grappled the last Space Marine, and rained a storm of heavy blows down upon them both. He heard servos creak and war-plate fracture beneath his relentless punches.
'Ready?' the shield-captain roared at Vega, who still had one struggling Space Marine and his bolter jammed up against the wall.
'Yes, sir!' The foot knight angled the shield and ran it along the wall like a dozer blade, ploughing all three Imperial Fists from their footing and over the edge into the howling sky. As they fell, Stenonox heard the futility of bolt-rounds fired back up at the under-plate.
The shield captain turned. Doloran was standing with the unconscious body of his opponent hanging limply by one arm. Stentonox nodded, and the sergeant-at-arms launched the Imperial Fist after his flailing brothers.
'Shield-captain,' chirped the vox. It was one of the grav-transports.
'Report.'
'We cannot reach the Custodians on the engine column, or hold station beneath it. The inverse gravitic interference is too strong.'
'Damn,' Stentonox murmured. It had been a long shot. Mid-air interception would be impossible without sending the transports into a similar freefall. As the shield-captain peered over the ragged edge, down at the Imperial Fists now also smashing through the merciless nest of vanes and aerials, his only comfort was that Katafalque's men would share the same fate as his.
As a second squad of Imperial Fists streamed from the airiock, weapons raised and demanding their surrender, both Vega and the sergeant-at-arms moved to counter them. Something had been unleashed in the pair - even without their sweeping blades and bolters, they were ready for battle. They were ready to pound Space Marines into the deck with their bare hands.
'No,' Stentonox said. 'Stand down.'
The order was quiet, but confident, and it was obeyed. As the Imperial Fists surrounded the Custodians, shouting commands and jabbing weapon muzzles at them, the vox crackled again.
'What are your orders, shield-captain?'
'Stand by,' Stentonox voxed back, as he raised his gauntlets in submission, with Vega and Doloran following suit. 'The game's not over. I've just introduced some new pieces to the board.'

With little ceremony, diplomacy or respect, the three Custodians had their gauntlets bound and were bundled through the doors of a nearby freight elevator.
As it rose rapidly through the crowded floors of the orbital plate, Stentonox felt the pull of ascension in the pit of his stomach. As the seconds ebbed away, he thought of his Custodians clawing and tumbling their way down the outside of the colossal gravitic column; he knew that they would keep their heads, removing their armour plate and using their cloaks and cardinals to create drag and tangle amongst the architecture.
He also knew, however, there was no way back up to the under-plate, and that it was only a matter of time before they ran out of handholds.
In tossing the Imperial Fists overboard, the shield-captain had consigned them to the same fate.
The doors shuddered open, and the Space Marines sent them out onto the operations deck of the orbital plate with a rough shove. With boltguns in their backs, Stentonox, Vega and Doloran were marched between rows of consoles and servitor-manned rune banks to the centre of the large chamber. Blast screens rumbled aside to reveal the thin skies beyond and let in the brilliance of the Terran sun, casting mercantile menials, bridge staff and officials from the Danakil mining conglomerates in silhouette.
From out of the glare strode an Imperial Fists officer, his eyes grim, his jaw taut and his white hair cut into a tonsure crown. He was flanked by a pair of legionary champions, who held Stentonox and his men in the unswerving aim of their ornate boltguns.
'Katafalque-' Stentonox began, as the shield-captain was forced to his knees by his captors.
'What the hell do you think you're doing?' Demetrius Katafalque demanded.
'Katafalque, listen to me-'
'No! Do you have any idea what you've done - in this, a time of war and betrayal?'
'Don't lecture me, legionary,' Stentonox spat back. 'You think just because you use the unforgiving earth of Terra as a weapon rather than your boltguns, that you have not murdered my warriors - the Emperor's own Custodians? What dark diplomacy is that, Fist?'
Katafalque sneered. 'You will pay for what you have done.'
'I did what I had to,' Stentonox seethed. 'What you forced me to do, and I'd do it again. We will both pay for your stubborn refusal to see sense. You have no authority to be here.'
'Rogal Dorn-'
'Rogal Dorn's word might be law anywhere else in the galaxy,' Stentonox told him, 'but here, in and above the Imperial Palace, we all answer to a higher authority.'
'The primarch seeks to secure the seat of that authority,' Katafalque stormed back.
'And in doing so, he imperils it.'
'That is your opinion, but we have official authorisation.'
'No, you do not,' the shield-captain told him. 'Though you undoubtedly will. The Warmason will have his indentured labour and the Palace will be further fortified… but not today, Demetrius. Not today. I understand your desires - I share them. But terrible mistakes have been made in the name of expediency, and it is my duty to protect the Emperor from the consequences of such mistakes.'
'I will see my primarch's orders through,' Katafalque assured the shield-captain.
'Just listen to me,' Stentonox said, coming as close to imploring as his pride would allow. 'My men - your men, too - are desperately clawing their way down the gravitic column. When they slip beyond the drives' reach, they will fall to their deaths. We have no time for this. Give the order. Engage the gravitic anchor. Bring the orbital plate to a halt and in so doing, save our men.'
Katafalque stared at the sheild-captain, his face contorting with hatred and disgust.
'Engage the anchor, Demetrius, and they will be drawn safely down to ground level.'
'I will not' Katafalque said finally. 'I will not be hostage to the games, perverse logic and trickery of the Legio Custodes, with your infamous disguises and deceptions. Some say it is wisdom to play at being the enemy and learn from simulated conflict, but all I see is a force at war with itself.'
'And I need not lecture the Legiones Astartes about that!' Stentonox bit back his outrage. 'This is Lord Dorn's adamance, his obstinacy in you.'
'A failing, perhaps,' Katafalque admitted. 'My men will die for it, as your men will die for yours. Ask yourself this, shield-captain - how much further will you compound this failure? Arcus is going to the Palace. Those are my primarch's orders.'
Stentonox sighed. 'Demetrius, for the sake of the Emperor's blood that runs through your veins and those of your men about to die, please... Engage the anchor.'
Demetrius Katafalque leaned in towards the kneeling shield-captain. 'No, Custodian,' he whispered. 'I will not.'
Stentonox allowed his head to fall. There was nothing more that he could do.
There was sudden commotion upon the operations deck. A report from a servitor was communicated urgently to an operations menial, who in turn passed it to the deck officer.
'My lord,' the man called out across the operations chamber to Katafalque. The gravitic anchor has been engaged.'
Shock, followed by anger, clouded Katafalque's snarling face. There was no exclamation. No confusion. No rage. He simply glared at Stentonox, his eyes alight with hatred and distrust.
'I want confirmation,' he said.
Lowering the barrel of his beautifully crafted boltgun and putting an armoured digit to the side of his helm, one of his champions sent the query. 'Our brothers confirm it,' he reported. 'The anchor has initiated gravitic reversal.'
'How long?.' Katafalque asked, without taking his eyes from the shield-captain.
'Two hours, my lord,' the deck officer informed him by way of an apology. 'Two hours for the column to complete its cycle and for us then to disengage it again.'
Katafalque nodded slowly to himself. Stentonox looked up at him.
The two observed a moment of grim silence. 'Our brother Fists, and the Custodians?'
'Caught in the gravity well,' the deck officer confirmed. 'Along with some debris and loose fixtures from the conurbatia below.' 
'This will not help you,' Katafalque muttered to Stentonox.
The Custodian was lost in thought, however. His men could not have been responsible for such an action, but he wasn't about to tell the captain that.
Alarms sounded across the operations deck.
'What is it now?' Katafalque demanded. His other champion strode across the deck and cut through the small throng of menials about the sensorium console.
'Gunships, inbound,' the Imperial Fist reported. 'Lunar designations. The Silent Sisterhood, captain. They're making an atmospheric approach.'
Katafalque's lips found their way back to a snarl. 'Get me a vox-link.' 
'No need - we're receiving a hololithic transmission, my lord,' the deck officer announced.
'On projectors,' Katafalque commanded. 'We shall hear of our sisters business in these great affairs.'
The spectral representation of a woman misted into a fixed signal before them. Stentonox saw immediately that it was Duesstra Edelstyne Sister-Commandress of the Raptor Guard and Confidente-Tranquil to Lady Krole, who had first alerted the Master of the Watch to the threat of the orbital plate. The novice glossator stood at her ghostly mistress side.
'Captain Katafalque,' she said, translating. 'Do you know to whom you speak?'
'I do, my lady,' Katafalque replied. 'We have collaborated many times on the Palace fortifications. You have my utmost respect, sister-
commandress, but do not think that will allow you to interfere in what are already crowded and unfortunate affairs.'
'Listen to me, captain. I am going to prevent you from committing any further to this calamitous endeavour. Information has recently come to my attention regarding the indentured workforce on board Arcus. Records show that the Danakil mineral conglomerates assured you that each and every one of their workers had met the demands of security. Isometrics, gene-profiling and so forth.'
'This is correct.'
'I'm afraid to inform you, captain,' the glossator continued to translate, 'that the Palace has been put on high alert. It is currently at situation-Xanthus and will remain so while the orbital plate remains on station or approach. Situation-Xanthus requires a higher level of Palace clearance than conglomerate isometrics - Danakil's profiling does not extend to psionic screening and associated genetic mutations. It is the Sisterhood's suspicion that your labour population might harbour witchbreeds and unsantioned psyker-strains.'
Demetrius Katafalque turned his stabbing glare from the hololith to Stentonox. Edelstyne produced a scroll document and held it up.
'Under section six-fourteen of the Vondraburg Proclamation, I am authorised to impound Arcus and its indentured workforce for processing and interrogation at the Scholastica Psykana facility atop Hive Illium.'
'You're serious?' Katafalque said, looking from Stentonox to Edelstyne and then back again.
'Always, captain,' the glossator assured him. 'These are serious matters. So serious, in fact, that the Somnus Citadel has sent word to Rogal Dorn. He is yet to reply, but he will. He will want to avoid the embarrassment of his Legion smuggling dangerous, unsanctioned psykers through the security measures including his own security measures - and into the Imperial Palace. What do you think, Captain Katafalque?'
Moments passed. The captain said nothing, then finally nodded. 'Yes, Lord Dorn would want to avoid such complications. It was fortunate that you took such an interest in our little misunderstanding.' 
'Many organisations pride themselves on being the right hand of the Emperor, captain. They cannot all be so. Sometimes, it's difficult for one hand to know what the other is doing.'
'Quite,' Katafalque said through gritted teeth. 'The Imperial Fists shall stand sentinel over the indentured population and see Arcus safely to your facility at Illium.'
'We shall take dual-custodianship of the orbital plate, captain,' Edelstyne had her glossator inform him. 'Please clear your hangers for the Raptor Guard's gunships and transports. Edelstyne out.'
Both the commandress and her novice dissipated into a static haze.
The operations deck was silent.
'Release them,' Katafalque ordered. 'Order the other squads to stand down.'
As the Imperial Fists released their binders, Stentonox and his Custodians got to their feet. 'Likewise,' Stentonox told his sergeant-at-arms.
'Vega - make your way down to the engineering and maintenance decks. You will lead the effort to rescue our men from the column. Inform Captain-General Valdor that we will be returning with the transports.' He fixed Katafalque with a raw glare, 'The action has been prosecuted, and has reached a satisfactory conclusion for both contingents. Tell him... Tell him there are no significant casualties to report on either side.'
As the shield-captain turned to leave, Katafalque grabbed him by the arm. Stentonox tensed.
'I want you to know,' Katafalque told him, 'that regardless of your officious truths or her convenient lies, it is you that has acted inappropriately here today. The Legio Custodes, the Silent Sisterhood - you put yourselves between the Emperor and his enemies. I guarantee that a day will come when you're going to wish that the wall between the Emperor and his enemies is taller and thicker than it is. When that day comes, you will understand how pointless, and indeed reckless, this has all been.'
Without looking at Katafalque, Stentonox pulled away and made for the elevator, leaving Arcus to the Imperial Fists.

It was late. Braziers of incense glowed about the vaulted corridors and halls of the Imperial Palace. Ordinarily, the Master of the Watch would debrief the sentinel-securitas, so that the captain of the next shift could be presented with details of importance and continuity. Since the palace was still at situation-Xanthus, Enobar Stentonox found himself debriefing the Chief Custodian himself.
They walked the arcades of the Second Ward as they talked, the alarm-status also necessitating double the Ares Guard for the Captain-General and a foot knight sentry to escort the Master of the Watch on his duties, as protocol dictated. The Custodians approached the concentrica-barbican, signalling their passage from the outer to the inner regions of the Palace.
It had been a long day for both of them. Beyond the incident on the orbital plate, Stentonox had spent the rest of his watch attempting to catch up with the schedule. He had failed miserably. He would be passing a colossal list of unfinished business on to the next Master of the Watch, just as his predecessor had done to him.
Constantin Valdor had left the blockade lines before Arcus to embark upon a full Palace inspection, taking the opportunity to review the minutiae of the Emperor's security under a genuine Xanthus-alert situation. This had led into an emergency session of the Caucum Aegis: a strategic assembly of Custodian veterans that advised the Captain-General on matters of security. The arrival of the orbital plate - and the diplomatic nightmare that had ensued - required greater review. It had been unexpected, and therefore manifested as ten times the perceived threat.
It was exactly the kind of danger that the Blood Games could not prepare them for. The future validity of the Games themselves had even come into question.
From the Caucum Aegis, the Chief Custodian had gone into a meeting with the Sigillite himself, which had left him dark and introspective.
'So the orbital plate has cleared Palace airspace,' Valdor confirmed.
'Yes, sir,' Stentonox said. 'On its way to Illium, Emperor willing, with Captain Katafalque still on board.'
'He's a stubborn, humourless bastard,' Valdor sighed. 'Not unlike Dorn himself. That said, there's no one from the Legiones Astartes I'd rather have manning our walls.'
Stentonox found himself forced to agree.
The shield-captain found himself lost in thought. The action on Arcus was behind him, but Stentonox had found it difficult to relax. It wasn't just that the Palace was still at high alert; something had been gnawing away at the back of his mind, the niggling feeling that he had missed something important. Something he didn't want to leave unattended for the next Master of the Watch to deal with...
He let his eyes drift from Constantin Valdor and across the glorious, golden plate of his Ares Guard. He looked up at the Terminators on the concentrica security gate, and at the sentry assigned to him as Master of the Watch. His gaze fell to the Custodian's rank and testimonials. Lentum Foot Knight, Vega Eritreus Sengral Obispum.
'Shield-captain?' said Valdor.
Vega.
There was something about the way the foot knight carried himself - about the way he strode, tall and proud, with his guardian spear held before him.
'Shield-captain,' Valdor pressed. 'Is there anything else?' 
'Just one piece of outstanding business, sir,' Stentonox replied.
The shield-captain spun upon his armoured heel. He went for the foot knight escorting him down the arcade, but the Custodian's halberd was between them in a flash. Stentonox grabbed the haft and the pair wrestled for control of the weapon, prompting the Chief Custodian's Ares Guard to surround their master in a protective formation.
Stentonox got a thumb over the ejection stud on the boltgun attachment's breach, and the heavy magazine clattered to the ground as he and the foot knight circled, pushing each other back and forth across the arcade. Vega heaved the guardian spear forwards with a powerful shove, smashing Stentonox in the face.
As the shield-captain fell back against the wall, the Ares Guard levelled their own weapons at the foot knight. 'Hold your fire,' Stentonox managed, but Vega came at them, throwing the halberd like a javelin. The shield-captain went to grab the unarmed foot knight but found himself snatched around with lightning speed.
Vega used the shield-captain as a pivot to turn and propel Stentonox straight into the Ares Guard formation. The foot knight followed him, snatching a short sword from the scabbard of one of the veteran Custodians. The blade's owner paid for its loss - Vega rammed it into the warrior's back, then whipped it back to parry the spear thrusts of the others.
Stentonox came up between the foot knight and the nearest Ares Guard. He grabbed Vega's sword arm, burying his shoulder in the foot knight's armoured chest. Smashing down with his elbow, Stentonox knocked the weapon out of his opponent's grip. As the blade clattered to the stone floor, the shield-captain turned to restrain him but was greeted with an armoured headbutt to the face.
Dodging the sweeping blade of a guardian spear, the foot knight snatched at the weapon, turning it in its owner's grasp and disarming the Custodian. Heaving the warrior back into the opposite wall with a crack of golden battleplate, Vega found himself face to face with his true target: Constantin Valdor.
The Captain-General of the Legio Custodes had not been watching the unfolding chaos like some casual observer, waiting for his Custodians to defend him. He was primed. He was ready. His attacker's moves had been blinding, his assault confident, but Vega had barely recovered his balance when the great fist of the Chief Custodian took him squarely in the faceplate.
The foot knight was propelled backwards by the sheer force of the blow. He tumbled back, his knees flying over his shoulders, and landing some distance up the passageway on his face and breastplate. Pushing himself to his knees, he shook the skull-rattling force of the impact from his helmet.
Sentries came from the concentrica gate, levelling the long barrels of their incinerators at the foot knight, and the Ares Guard surrounded the Chief Custodian once more. Stentonox stood beside the injured, wiping blood from his broken nose.
'Enough,' the shield-captain told Vega, 'or I clear them to fire.' 
The foot knight got shakily to his feet, looking back at the Terminators behind him and the concentrica gate to the inner Palace, then back to Stentonox and the Chief Custodian. He went limp, and nodded his surrender.
'Report to the infirmary,' Stentonox told the wounded Ares Guard, sending them on their way.
'Captain Stentonox?' Valdor put to the captain.
The shield-captain turned and presented himself similarly, Vega stood to attention.
'Captain-General, may I present Custodian Belisanus,' Stentonox said. 'The final participant in the present cycle of the Blood Games.'
Constantin Valdor's tired face broke into a grim smile of appreciation. The foot knight took off his ruined high helm, revealing the fresh face of a young and ambitious Custodian.
'Impressive.'
'That's not the half of it, sir,' Stentonox said. 'I have deduced that Custodian Belisarius was also on board the orbital plate today - he had been hoping to gain access to the Palace as one of the indentured workforce.'
Stentonox looked to the young Custodian, who nodded slowly.
Valdor nodded as well. 'I'll wager he would have succeeded.' 
'Perhaps,' the shield-captain replied. 'Instead, he found his talents turned to... diplomatic sabotage, engaging the gravitic anchor from the orbital plate's drive column, and thereby saving the lives of both Legio Custodes and Legiones Astartes. He also covertly alerted the Silent Sisterhood to our stalemate, thereby saving everyone else.'
'You knew this at the time?' Valdor asked.
'No, sir - unfortunately I did not,' Stentonox admitted. 'Custodian Belisarius did not wish to compromise his performance in the games.
Regrettably, I came to the realisation only a few moments ago. Belisarius must have left the plate disguised as one of our own, Custodian Vega. He intended to infiltrate the Palace defences as... well, as one of the Legio Custodes, sir. I fear he pushed his luck when he assigned himself as my sentry in the hope of achieving access to the inner Palace.' Stentonox ran the forefinger and thumb of one gauntlet down his now crooked nose. 'It almost smacks of hubris.'
'And it almost worked.' Valdor concluded.
'Indeed, sir,' the shield-captain said. 'It seems to me that Custodian Belisarius was trying to make a point. As part of his infiltration, he clearly made you a target - I think that it would be wise to learn something from this. As principal among the Emperor's protectors and the head of the Palace's security, you are a target for our enemies.' 
'We all are,' Valdor said. 'All those who stand between Horus and the Emperor.'
'Sir.'
The Chief Custodian looked at them both for a long moment. 'We'll talk more of this, though. We'll talk about what else can be done.' 
It had been a long day. Stentonox had carried the duty of Palace security for only twenty-four hours, and yet he felt completely drained. Exhausted, even. He found it difficult to imagine the strength it might take to carry such a burden with every day that dawned.
Pushing through his Ares Guard and walking up towards the concentfica gate, Constantin Valdor turned back to the battered Stentonox and Belisarius. 'Know this - I sleep better knowing that there are Custodians like you within our ranks. For now, let us enjoy some well-earned rest. When the enemy is at our gates, there will be little time for such luxuries.'