Sunlight glared on Nika's olive-drab hull, scratched down to the bare metal in a number of places. Waves of sand rippled outwards from the churning workings of her treads. Once again, I had draped my shirt over my head in an effort to ward off the sun, while Mahud remained smugly comfortable in the garment I had learned was called a stillsuit. Mila had come outside for all of four seconds before declaring she would remain inside Nika's air conditioning until the last possible moment.

Mahud pointed towards a speck on the horizon. "That's a Harkonnen spice harvester. They've usually got two cargo 'thopters giving air cover, and they'll be in contact with their harvesting base."

"The spice is on the harvester?"

"Right." Mahud agreed. "The tricky part will be grabbing the harvester when it's gathered enough spice, but before a worm attacks it. I'd rather not kill anybody on board, but if they resist we might have to."

"So, I take it you have a plan." I said.

"Of course. Nika's guns are powerful enough that she can probably hold off whatever worms show up, at least for a little while. After getting them to stop by threatening to blow them up, we'll get on board and have the crew offload the spice tank. We'll teleport back out and be gone before they can muster any reinforcements."

"Sounds solid to me." I said.

"I can also jam any signals the harvester gives, although I cannot stop the ornithopters from physically flying back to base." Nika put in."

"That'll definitely help." I agreed.

"We are currently within five minutes' travel of the harvester at maximum speed." Nika continued. "Shall I boost to begin intercept?"

Mahud considered, still watching the harvester through a pair of magnoculars. "Hit it."

Nika's engines purred up to full speed, and the plume of dust shot skyward as we accelerated.

"They're hailing us on the radio." Nika reported. "Mila's handling it."

Moments later, Mila climbed out and joined us on Nika's roof. "They're threatening to call air support. I told them to go right ahead, just prep the spice tanks for our arrival."

"Works for me." I agreed. "Let's go."

Nika's path curved up alongside the spice harvester, where a series of liveried guards were waiting, rifles pointed at the three humans on Nika's deck. We barely flinched, just stared back as Nika extended a pair of heavy auto-cannons from the hull, their barrels slack-jawed and yawning.

The guards put down their guns. Mahud leapt across the gap first, myself and Mila following.

"The storage tanks are controlled from the bridge." Mahud informed us as we headed towards the front of the vehicle. "Tell Nika to head towards the rear in order to pick them up."

We arrived at the control room, where Mahud and I established control pretty quickly- these were the people who'd seen our radar return, after all. There were only a few people in the room, all decked out in some sort of livery. They were civil, if contemptuous. "House Harkonnen will not forget this, you know." The man who I took to be the spice harvester's commander said.

I shrugged. "I really don't think you understand how little that concerns me. Just set the tanks down on the desert floor so Nika— our vehicle can pick them up."

The commander input a few commands, and the harvester shuddered a little bit as the heavy tanks were detached.

"Pleasure doing business, gents." Mahud said sarcastically. The spice harvesters glowered at us, and we three spice pirates beat a hasty retreat back to Nika. A number of the harvesters hung around, keeping their weapons lowered but present to watch us. We were in the process of chaining the huge spice tank to Nika's hull when a loud crackling sound echoed through the desert. The ground shuddered, and the spice harvesters began laughing.

"What's so funny?" Mila asked them.

"Wormsign." One of the harvesters, an older man than the rest, replied. He grinned. "Unless you've got your own 'thopter, this just turned into a pretty short crime spree."

"Ah, the captain might take pity if you start begging now!" another harvester laughed.

I glanced at Mahud, who had paled. "That's no wormsign." He murmured. "There's something else."

"Can we get out in time?" I asked back, sotto voce.

He shook his head.

"Nika, what are you picking up right now?" Mila asked.

"There appears to be some sort of electromagnetic disturbance fifteen kilometers to the south." Nika replied. "However, I cannot determine its exact location or magnitude, my sensors are quite confused by the spectra it is emitting."

"Doesn't matter." I decided. "We need to get out of here as fast as we can."

It was too late. The cracking sound grew in volume, even as an ornithopter hove into view to pull the spice harvester away from the danger. A smell came over the wind. Putrid and sickly sweet…

I grabbed Mila, who grabbed Mahud in turn and pulled us all inside Nika's hatch. "Nika, get the Hellebore's ready!" I ordered, dashing into the commander's seat.

"What is it?" Mahud asked, looking confused. But looking at Mila, I knew she could sense it too.

"Chaos." We both said.

"Shit." Was Mahud's judgement. "We need a plan."

"I'm all ears." I answered.

"Work fast." Mila advised, watching Nika's pict-screens. Over the horizon, a pink glow like some diseased dawn was emerging. Something big was moving within it.

"Another titan?" I asked Mila. "Maybe this won't be so bad."

"It would appear to be about the right size." Nika agreed. "But the thermal readings don't look like it. There's no power core, no coolant cells, and no heat exchangers. It's all uniform."

"What kind of machine does that?" Mila asked.

"Not a machine." Mahud said. "Flesh."

"Whatever it is, it's getting closer." I said. "Nika, fire the Hellebores."

There was a loud thump, and Nika's two heavy railguns sent their super-dense projectiles at the monstrous thing. Then the air seemed to twist and both bullets veered away. Mila's eyes went wide. "That's a daemon."

The earth shuddered as the daemon strode away from whatever Warp witchery that had summoned it. Even through the filter of Nika's pict-screens, it hurt to look at the thing. It was blue and shaped like a centipede, with dozens of arms on each side. Its hide was some silvery, beetle-like plates. They shimmered and winked in the sunlight, castiung weird and impossible silhouettes. It had tens of shining, rainbow-colored eyes, and several of them turned towards us. When it spoke, its voice boomed over Nika's speakers, "Well, what a pleasure to meet you. I must say, this planet is in bad need of some redecoration. I don't suppose you could bow down and declare your allegiance to me now? It would save a lot of fuss and blood."

By way of response, Nika fired again. The Hellebore rounds once again glanced off the air before the monster with little effect. It laughed, a sound like glass breaking. "Well, hold still then. I'll be there in a moment!"

The thing's stubby leg-arm appendages churned the sand, struggling with such an unusual environment. But it was making progress, and tied to the huge drum of spice as we were, Nika's own movement would be even slower.

"We need to drop the spice." I said. "Even if we can beat this guy, we at least need to maneuver."

"No, wait!" Mahud exclaimed. "I have a better idea!"

I hesitated. "Let's hear it."

"Keep shooting at the daemon." Mahud instructed. "Just make sure to keep the pattern nice and regular. Don't stop until I say."

"I'll help." Mila said. As we had tied the spice to Nika's hull, she had taken the liberty of taking a quick dose of the stuff. Now her eyes were crackling once more with psychic power- even more potent than ever. She laid her palm against Nika's console, and the weird purple light spread out over the Bolo's interior. On the pict-screen, I could see that Nika's Hellebore turrets were now covered in crackling St. Elmo's fire, twisting and rippling with power.

Nika's next shot streaked right into the daemon, punching a hole in its chest big enough to drive a tractor through. The daemon roared in pain, but managed to turn it into a laugh. "Ah, you're going to have to pay for that, I'm afraid. Don't worry, I'll come to you."

Nika kept up the cadence of fire, sending one Hellebore round after another at the daemon, but it had learned from her trick now and was ready for it. None of the other shells managed to do much more than scratch it. The trembling of the ground was much louder now, and it seemed to confuse the daemon for a moment.

"Nika, stop firing!" Mahud ordered.

Scant seconds later, the biggest mouth I have ever seen erupted from the sand, questing for the source of the terrible noise which had summoned it. Unmoving and with silent guns, Nika was ignored. The churning struggle of the daemon was not. There was a short scream, and then a curtain of mottled brown skin flashed past us for a long, silent moment. It took almost a full thirty seconds for the sandworm to pass us by, and when at last it had, even Mahud seemed impressed at the thing's size.

"I guess the louder the thumper, the bigger the worm." He remarked.

Mila and I nodded quietly.

"Still." Nika pointed out, "This presents a problem. We are not the only ones who can travel between universes now."

Well, the implications of that were probably the least pleasant thought I've ever had. "How… how do we stop them?" I asked.

Grim looks all around. We sat staring at the ground for some time before Nika jolted us out of the fugue. "I suggest we take this one step at a time. Surely if we take this spice back to the Inquisitor's fortress, we can at least ask the Inquisition about working jointly to find a way?"

There was no argument there, and without much fuss Nika activated her beacon and teleported us back.

Even the Inquisitor's fortress seemed even grimmer and darker than it had when we'd left it, altough Devera was still there to meet us as we arrived. "It's been a few weeks, our time." She explained as we walked upstairs, one of Nika's remotes following so that she could participate in the conversation. "The Archenemy has made some frightening territorial gains, I'm afraid to say, and the route they're opening is pointed right at Terra. Our own fleets are reporting weapons and ships the likes of which they've never seen— and very few of our own survive contact with the enemy at all." She paused solemnly. "Cadia fell while you were absent. I fear that even you could not have made a difference, Nika. Abbadon took one of his Blackstone Fortresses and rammed the whole damned thing into the planet. Word has it that the Guard was fighting even as the planet collapsed beneath them."

"Shaw." Mila murmured.

Devera shook her head sadly. "He didn't make it."

"God-Emperor's peace be with him." Mila and I murmured.

Mahud seemed lost in his own sadness— probably thinking about his own doomed Exodite world, Malthus. But then, unexpectedly, he asked, "Who's the god-emperor?"

Mila, Devera, and I burst out laughing. Perhaps it was the very sadness of the moment before, interrrupted with such an inane question. I'm certain I wouldn't have found it funny under normal circumstances. But it was and— well— we did.

Mahud at least looked a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, there's a similar legend among my own people, and at first I had always assumed you were talking about the prophesied one. But you're not, are you?"

I decided Devera was probably the best person to explain. After all, if she did it wrong, there weren't many people around who could cry 'heresy!' and use her as a bolter silencer.

"I'll spare you the long version." Devera said. "Leave that to the cardinals. The basic truth is that the God-Emperor is the savior of humanity, the only thing that-until now- could truly hold back the terrors of the universe. His beacon on Terra guides our ships through the Warp- even Nika's own teleporter is designed around His psychic might— in this case allowing us to pierce the veil of reality itself."

"The God-Emperor is a psyker?" Mahud asked sharply.

Devera looked annoyed. "I would hardly compare Him to any normal psyker. The difference in power is like… like an ocean to a raindrop."

Mahud's eyes widened. "Devera. We have a literal tonne of spice sitting under us right now. If just a little bit of it could enhance Mila's powers dramatically…" he trailed off. "What else could it do?"