Mechanicum

At the request of Adept Zeth, Lords Caturix and Verticorda had ordered the Knights of Taranis to ride from their chapter house in defence of Mars and the Magma City. Rumour had it that Zeth had also despatched emissaries to Lord Cavalerio of Tempestus to petition their engines to walk, but no one knew what answer she had received.

With several machines powerless to ride until the reactor was repaired, the Knights of Taranis were forced to operate in teams of two instead of three to cover the scale of their deployment. Old Stator had marched out alongside Brother Gentran, a rider newly-elevated from the Errantry, and Maven had been surprised to find that he missed the flinty presence of his preceptor.

Maven and Cronus had ridden east, following a patrol circuit that carried them clockwise around the rumpled skirts of the ancient volcano, before turning to follow the line of the Oti Fossae southwards. As night fell on the second day of their ride, they turned west towards the Magma City to refuel and recharge before continuing on their patrol circuit.

The forge of Koriel Zeth never failed to amaze Maven, glowing like an ember in the distance while the skies above seethed with orange light as though the clouds themselves were afire. Riding closer, lava-filled aqueducts had shone like threads of gold as they carried molten rock from the top of Aetna's Dam, the monolithic structure that formed the entirety of the volcano's southern flank, to the magma lagoon surrounding the city.

Towering walls of ceramite and adamantium ringed the enormous city, and the light of the planet's lifeblood dispelled the darkness as the Knights marched along the mighty, statue-lined Typhon Causeway towards the Vulkan Gate.

Silver and black spires jutted over the walls like metallic teeth, and only after convoluted binaric interrogation by the gate's defences had they been allowed inside. They had stayed within the circuit of the walls just long enough for their mounts' power cells to be brought back to maximum charge before riding out.

The two Knights had continued on their patrol circuit of the enormous volcano, skirting the Magma City's port facilities where millions of tonnes of war materiel was ferried into the hungry bellies of mass-conveyers hanging low in the crowded skies. No sooner had they left the smoking grandeur of Zeth's city than Maven had felt Equitos Bellum pulling at him, an insistent urge that nagged at his hindbrain and sent painful skewers of pain into his mind whenever he resisted.

With their course soon to carry them eastwards towards home, the pull was getting stronger, and Maven gripped the controls tighter as he felt a building ache behind his eyes. He felt every one of his hard-plugs scratching with irritation, as though Equitos Bellum was trying to dislodge him like a wild colt.

'What's the matter with you?' he hissed.

As if in answer, a ghostly flare on the auspex spiked to the south, and Maven flinched as a surge of recognition pulsed in his mind. The image vanished almost as soon as it appeared and he wasn't even sure he'd seen it, but for the briefest instant it had looked like a dreadfully familiar spider-like pattern of electromagnetic energy.

Maven drew his mount to a halt, feeling the pain behind his eyes ease as he did so. The tall machine's hydraulics hissed as it sank down onto its haunches.

'Cronus, wait!' he called, rotating the Knight's upper body with a deft movement of the controls. There was nothing to see here, just bone white ash and dust whipped in from the southern pallidus. He heard the relaxing groan of metal as Equitos Bellum settled, feeling the tension in its limbs and the restless hunger for vengeance burning in its core.

'What is it?' replied Cronus, and Maven read the telltales of his brother's machine assuming a war posture through the Manifold. 'What do you see?'

'I don't know,' admitted Maven. 'I don't think there's actually anything out there, but Equitos Bellum's got the scent of something.'

'Did you get an auspex return?'

'Sort of, maybe… I don't know,' said Maven. 'It was like a ghost image or something. It was just like the energy signature I saw right before the attack on Maximal's reactor.'

Pax Mortis rode alongside him, and Maven could see Leopold Cronus through the armaglass canopy. His brother looked unconvinced, but not yet ready to write off Maven's - and Equitos Bellum's - instincts for danger.

'Send it over,' ordered Cronus. 'The auspex log for the last few minutes.'

Maven nodded, exloading the data from his auspex panel to Cronus's machine in a brief data squirt. As he waited for Cronus to review the data, he cast his gaze out into the depths of the pallidus.