(Graia forge ring)

In the soundless vacuum of the void, the magnetic footpads of the dreadnought's feet activated and deactivated with every step on the ring. As he transversed the outside, he monitored several noospheres. He tracked his battle brothers as they moved in the station accompanied by Magos Fenstricus in his combat form and his cohort of skitarii. The Ark Mechanicus Arizona had taken up position close to the ring, transport ships ferrying fresh skitarii legions to the station and returning injured, damaged, or salvaged parts of skitarii.

Inquisitor Furia had the Ultramarines accompany her back to her strike cruiser where the warp-based power source was sealed for further study. Little doubt she would be arguing jurisdiction with the Ordo Hereticus, who would predictably argue for the device's destruction, whereas her rebuttal would likely be the method for safe disposal via the Grey Knights. Of course, in order for her argument to hold any weight she needed to be backed by Grey Knights. That mission was entrusted to him and his Blood Ravens as the Ultramarines were not permitted to know of their existence.

With the aid of Graia's Fabricator-General, The techmarine dreadnought was granted the knowledge of internal layout of the ring station. As Magos Fenstricus' forces and his battle brothers were moving, the map was proving accurate but it was taken with a note of caution using servoskull to verify the data whenever battle permitted. Their foe was initially just cohorts of Dark Mechanicus skitarii but soon there were Chaos worshipping cultists in the mix. It was clearly a delaying tactic. His part in the plan was infiltration, an ironic position for a dreadnought but such tactics were commonplace for his chapter.

He followed the noosphere of the station, he closed in on the familiar presence that was the Grey Knight's Master of the Forge. He sensed the secure vox array being probed and attacked by scrapcode however the complex coding resisted all points of entry. He soon stood directly over the position of Techmarine Prodromos. He walked past it to an airlock that would barely fit him. He extended a mechadendrite into a port near the airlock. He purified the terminal of scapcode and healed the lock's machine spirit.

The door opened and Vernus squeezed his bulk inside. The lock cycled and pressurized, releasing the dreadnought into the broad corridors. Recalling his distant training from his time as a scout, the dreadnought carefully placed his steps as he moved through the empty corridor. He deployed several servo-skulls to scout around. Remarkably, in spite of his size, Vernus was able to walk silently, the precision of his leg bundles enabling him.

His auspex cycled through different visual frequencies until he found one that allowed him to see through the walls into the adjoining chamber. He saw two distinct forms one was smaller and appeared to be lying down and the other larger standing near the first. Too small to be any of the traitor astartes, Venus could only speculate it was a Dark Mechanicu heretek. The question was how to disable the heretek, as he could not be certain if the heretek's brain was even in his head any more. So that meant disabling him via digitally.

As the Omnissiah's Will would have it, a traitor servo-skull rounded a corner and approached his position. Vernus commanded one of his own servo-skulls to slip behind the traitors and interfaced with it. In a tidal attack upon the skull, Venus simultaneously cut it off from it's network, purged it of scrapcode, and seized control. In a compressed ritual, a machine spirit was born in that cursed skull. He would rectify its body later but for what he intended, it would do well.

He stood out of sight as the doors to the chamber opened and the captured servo-skull floated lazily in. A burst of scrapcode was emitted from the heretek as he observed the skull. He extended an arm to receive the skull as a trainer received a tame avian predator. He never suspected a thing until the skull interfaced with him. Through the skull, the dreadnought unleashed the Omnissiah's hexamatic wrath into the warp-cursed systems of the heretek.

Unable to utter so much as a sound of burst of alarm, the heretek collapsed. The Forgemaster's machine spirit was left to systemically purge the heretek of scrapcode and possibly extract useful information. With the heretek taken care of, Vernus beheld the scene before him. The Grey Knight Master of the Forge had been completely dismembered and his lower body had been surgically removed. His organs were attached to foul cables, clearly intending to corrupt the body of the Grey knight, though burned out piles indicated a lack of progress in that area. There was very little skin on what remained of Prodromos, his eyes, jaw and tongue removed.

It was a terrible fate and the swiftness they were able to render the Grey Knight to this stirred Vernus' reactor. He examined the remarkably still-living Master of the Forge until he found a port. It was scorched from doubtlessly many attempt to interface with him. Vernus extended an interface cable of his own. He encountered a coded firewall composed of holy runes. Vernus spun a web of his own, calling upon many aspects of the obscure lore of the Omnissiah.

Prodromos sent a ping with compressed question. When Vernus answered, the firewall systemically came down and the Forgemaster was greeted with pained relief.

"Thank the Omnissiah, you came." Said Prodromos through their link," You must hurry, my brothers are caught in a web with a worse fate than mine planned for them."

The Forgemaster simply acknowledged with a ping. It as at that time that his fellow Blood Ravens entered the area as Magos Fenstricus' forces was able to press their advantage. Venus indicated to the accompanying servitors to gather up the Grey Knight's Aegis armor which apparently was being studied by the heretek, and place it into a sealed crate.

"I have a request." Started Prodromos as his form was surrounded by the arrival of several medicae servitors with experience in Astartes anatomy," I desire you to remake me into a dreadnought. I cannot go to the Dead Fields with this humiliation. I will support my brothers as you support yours: from the chassis of a techmarine dreadnought."

Vernus pulled up a file from deep in his memory, a device deep from the Librarium of the Omnis Arcanum, passed from one Master of the Forge to the next, it's origins shrouded in as much mystery as the Blood Raven's themselves. It was device that enabled the creation of librarian dreadnoughts, something he was planning on implementing for his own chapter, now that he had the knowledge on how to construct dreadnoughts. The device was simply called Osiron. He shared it with his fellow Master of the Forge.

He was greeted by silence for a time before Prodromos sent a file of his own with a disclaimer that the Ordo Malleus must approve before it is used. He placed the file in the processing queue for his machine spirit and the Index of Understanding. He had a servo-skull attach to the Grey Knight Techmarine to record his formal request and his reasoning. Prodromos was soon sealed in a stasis pod which was conducted away from the battle back to his strike cruiser.

He looked over his fellow battle brothers, whom waited expectantly for him.

"Tactical Imperative 1167-BH6, operate as if the enemy already knows we are coming. Partial analysis of the heretek's mind indicates we are up against at the very least Thousand Sons." Vernus drew upon his considerable experience," We are likely to expect Chaos Sorcerers and Rubric Marines. For the Rubrics, aim for their limbs as headshots will not kill. For sorcerers, they can pierce the veil of time and see into the future, they are likely peering in on this conversation. To that end we need to hit them with tactics they cannot reasonably counter."

"Like a flood of skitarii?" Came the suggestion from Magos Fenstricus Combat Frame.

"Is that doable?" Asked Brother-sergeant Dexian Vale.

"Casualties will be heavy but worth the prevention of this station's takeover." Said the Magos.

"Would it be possible to acquire archaic energy weapons?" Asked Vernus.

The arachnoid form of the Magos moved sideways as several cargo servitors, their torsos sitting at the heads of cargo-laden, tracked platforms.

"Our concordance is 84.34825% in alignment with yours. You need was anticipated. Addendum: I bear gifts from both the Servants of the Omnissiah and the Iron Hands Chapter." Announced Fenstricus.

The Servitors rotated and systemically unloaded and distributed weapons.

"A cognis lascannon, blessed by Archmagos Pentateux Gentrical." Started the Magos," An ancient plasma rifle named Crux Immolator, a veteran weapon of 317 campaigns. Twin plasma cannons Zerach Alpha and Beta, the odd heavy weapons machine spirits were intertwined in will and purpose, those who separated them bore their ire. A Multi-melta that has been borne by 13 battle servitors, its desire to destroy overwhelmed their cogitators."

"To you, Techmarine Xentax, I bestow the Omnissian Power axe of Magos Dominus Nerian Tenclus. It is a weapon rich with the desire to repair as well as destroy and will serve you well in equal measure." The Dominus finally turned to the dreadnought," Gifted to you from the Iron Fathers of the Iron Hands chapter, I present to you a dreadnought variant of the Volkite Culverin."

Each of the Blood Ravens took up their new weapons, some replacing them with their old ones, others mounting their other weapons on their backs or hip mounts respectively. Vernus extended one of his thicker servo ams from his back and quickly went about installing the new weapon in place of the servo-manipulator. The power feeds checked out and he reprioritized his machine spirit to sing in parallel to the weapon's machine spirit. The process did not take very long as the weapon was folded neatly on his back.

The servitors departed, some empty, some bearing the heavy bolters and packs of the assault marines, some bearing the bolter rifles of the tactical marines.

"Let us proceed. Time is short. You know the plan." Started the dreadnought before opening up his vox caster, his resonating voice shaking the area around them as he called out," For the Emperor and the Omnissiah! Knowledge is Power..."

"GUARD IT WELL!" His fellow Blood Ravens echoed.

(Graia Forge Ring, room of ritual)

He saw them… Blood Ravens. Even though his Tzeench-blessed gaze could pierce the veil of time, their presence was still unexpected. He struggled to contain his rage as his cultists even his Rubric marines were struggling against forces of the Mechanicus and their tech-guard. The Thousand Sons' sorcerer had been part of the legion for nigh five hundred years and since first hearing about them, he had long planned and plotted to get his hands on some of the supposedly incorruptible Grey Knights. He laid subtle hints in time, drawing them to him to this moment but just when it seemed that his triumph was assured, his frustrations began.

First was the fact that the Grey Knight's practiced Aegis field was maintained even when stripped of their armor, anchoring them to the Materium. How annoying. Then came the arrival of the strange Ark Mechanicus a vessel that just felt wrong, though he could not place why. Then came the Blood Ravens led by a dreadnought of unknown pattern or design. The dreadnought was another major headache for its very shell seemed to resist his attempts to pierce its mind. Every time he tried to reach for the skeins of time towards the dreadnought, it would be ripped from his grasp. There were few forces in existence that could do that. he remembered in passing that the Blood Ravens did from time to time fight besides the Aeldari…

His musings were interrupted by a push... strike that… breach in his lines. The accursed Skitarii were coordinating strikes backed by robots. Most of his forces were committed on the surface of Graia, Chaos about the battlefield but to his frustration, Nemeroth interfered with his forces as much as they interfered with the Imperium's. He began the ritual to summon two maulerfiends from the battlefield below to deal with the dreadnought.

It was in the middle of said ritual that the main doors to the exceedingly spacious chamber blew inward with loyalist skitarii forces flooding into the chamber against the waiting tide of cultists and Dark Skitarii firing from the upper levels. The Rubric marines formed a protective barrier in front of the sorcerer and opened fire into the crowd of skitarii at the same time additional cultists entered the chamber shouting, muttering screaming as they ran down the narrow stair to join the fray.

The massive forms of the maulerfiends materialized. The multi-limbed warp constructs roared and unbidden leaped over the Rubrics down nearly two stories to land on the deck and charge into the fray, massacring cultist and skitarii alike. Imperial guardsmen would have fled or lost their minds, but another frustration for the sorcerer was the fact that the only response he garnered was their fire.

Then he saw it, the Blood Raven Dreadnought, it was taller than any dreadnought he had ever seen. It swayed as it stepped through the tech guard which parted prior to every step. The sorcerer directed the wrath of the chaos engines to the form which they were built to destroy. The constructs plowed through the skitarii, encircling the dreadnought to catch it in a basic pincer maneuver.

To the utter surprise of the sorcerer and by the extension of the Maulerfieds, the dreadnought leaped. The two chaos engines crashed into each other their wrath suddenly flaring against each other. Before the sorcerer could reign in and redirect their focus back at their target, his foresight warned him of various projectiles. Not but seconds later the dreadnought landed on the necks of the fiends digging his articulated lightning claws into them. The dreadnought simultaneously launched a swath of missile from his shoulder launchers right at him.

The fiends attempted to claw at the dreadnought but its unexpected agility allowed the sarcophagus to dance on their backs making them attack each other. The servo-arms of the dreadnought seized each of the secondary appendages emerging from the back of the warp constructs and ripping them out.

The sorcerer reached out with the Warp to grab the missiles. A scorpion-like form dropped from the ceiling behind him accompanied by the forms of several Skitarii rustalkers. He brought the missiles around to hurl them at the Mechanicus forces. Just as he had the missile fly by himself, they suddenly exploded, throwing the sorcerer back against the resolute wall of Rubric marines. The sorcerer rolled out of the way to avoid the claws of the machine.

The scorpion was fast, its claws crackling with the energy of a lethal power field, lunged towards him. He spun out of the way only for the claws to seize one of the Rubrics and scythe the armor in two. The Thousand sons sorcerer hurled warp lightening at the machine only to hit a particularly powerful refractor field. His arm exploded in a mist of gore as a heavy stubber built into the constructs tail fired upon him with lethal accuracy.

In spite of his pain, the sorcerer called upon one of the regenerative gifts of Tzeench. His thoughts suddenly came to a horrible realization, why were the ruststalkers not attacking? His answer came when he spared a glance over to where the Grey Knights were being held and he could do little as the Skitarii cleaved through the bindings, freeing the warriors of the Ordo Malleus.

So much is going awry… all of his planning… looking at every angle of the skeins of time… he looked a again and was met with the mental image of a metallic, skeletal face with a single green eye. It deliberately blocked him.

A Necron?! How..?

The whole wall of Rubric marines was rapidly reduced to piles of warped metal. He saw the dreadnought holding in one of his three arms a massive rotary weapon, the torn remains of the maulerfiends lay lifeless at his feet. The cultists were all dead, he was surrounded. He had no choice. The sorcerer activated a pre-readied spell and vanished back into the warp.

"My thanks, Magos Dominus for our rescue." Said the Grey Knight Justicar.

"It was my pleasure to aid the military arm of the Ordo Malleus, however, this would not have been possible without the Forgemaster."

The Justicar nodded as he watched with fascination as the dreadnought climbed up to their level, the agility and range of movement beyond any dreadnought he had ever seen. He looked to the Magos and nodded again, tacitly implying that the conversation that was to pass between the Grey Knights and the Blood Ravens was not for his audio receptors. The Dominus' war-form bowed and lead his ruststalkers away to resume cleansing the forge ring.

A servo-skull detached from a receptacle on the dreadnought's back and extended a data probe to connect with the Justicar. The Grey Knight allowed it. Through it, he received Master of the Forge Prodromos' recorded request. The Justicar deleted the data from the servo skull before sending it back to its owner.

"This is unprecedented." Said Justicar Styer.

"As were the conditions I found him in." Said the Forgemaster.

"I gather you already have thoughts as to how to go about it?" Asked Styer.

"I have." Answered the dreadnought.

"You do realize the complicated nature of this request." Said the Grey Knight.

The Forgemaster spoke with understanding born of his years," If you approve, I will forge him anew, after all this never happened and you were never here."

The Blood Ravens knew how to keep secrets, not to mention their accumulated knowledge often bore fruit for the Inquisition when they looked past the chapter's shortcomings. Prodromos spoke highly of the Forgemaster's skills when he was the Master of the Forge. There was no doubt that no other was more well-versed in dreadnought lore in the 41st millenium.

"You will use our forges…" Started Styer.

"There are resources aboard the Ark Mechanicus Arizona that are necessary for my work. They can be transferred and inspected. However, there remains a matter to be settled before the departure." Said the dreadnought as he received a data exload from Archmagos Veritas.

"Nemeroth." Agreed Styer.

(Graia, Orbital Spire.)

Captain Titus sent three Chaos Space Marine careening over the ledge with a broad and rapid sweep of his thunder hammer. Each stroke was driven by his controlled fury, Sidonis' death was his responsibility and he intended to collect the debt from Nemeroth with interest. Mechanicus forces guarded Sidonis body, freeing up Leonidas to accompany him and provide him with covering fire. Bolter rounds splashed against the refractor field projected by his Iron Halo. He noted the fuel gauge projected in his mind's eye through his black carapace. There was enough fuel for about six more short jumps or two long ones. He was about to ignite the pack when a stream of bolter fire tore through the Chaos forces like wet tissue paper.

Titus turned to see the Forgemaster, tall and resplendent unleashing his own fury upon the traitor forces, accompanied by astartes in grey or silvery plating with the icon of the Inquisition emblazoned on their warplate. They bore Force weapons of patterns he did not recognize and engaged the traitor forces at range with storm bolters mounted on the wrists of their armor and startlingly psychic attacks as well. Leonidas eyed them with great suspicion but continued his cover fire regardless. Bloodletters charged the new arrivals only for the grey astartes and the dreadnought to dispatch them with practiced and coordinated ease.

Once quiet had descended over the area, Titus and Leonidas joined the newcomers.

"I thought you were in orbit?" Asked Titus.

"Objectives complete. Teleporters on the Forge ring." The Forgemaster stated plainly.

"Who are these Astartes?" Leonidas spoke with a barely restrained snarl.

"Peace, young one." Spoke the dreadnought," They are long-standing wards of the Inquisition. That is all you need to know. The less you know the less they strip from your mind or lessen the reason to execute you outright. They have that authority."

Leonidas' brows furrowed but he said no more.

"Take point, Captain." Said one of the Grey Knights.

"In that case, provide cover while I wreak vengeance upon their ranks." Titus declared.

The Grey Knights nodded in Vernus' direction. The dreadnought heaved and spun up his assault cannon as his anti-personnel rounds were chambered.

With that the impromptu squad, charged forth. As Traitor astartes and Daemon alike made their presence known, they were accordingly purged under the hammer, sword, bolter, lascannon, plasma cannon, power first and lightening claw. Leonidas and the Grey Knights followed up Titus' jump jet strikes with coordinated bolter fire. The tech-dreadnought brought up the rear covering their flanks with his variety of weapons but holding back on some of his heavier weapons such as his krack missiles and Volkite Culverin, which remain firmly folded on his back.

They emerged onto the top of the spire, Nemeroth was obviously attempting to use the power source as an offering for his ascent to daemonhood. Though standing between them and the Chaos sorcerer was a score of traitor astartes, Bloodletters, and a pair of Defliers.

Without any hesitation, Vernus charged the defilers. The daemon engines fired their chest mounted, hell-forged battle cannons at the dreadnought. Vernus demonstrated his body's superior agility and maneuverability by side-stepping around the blast zones.

Using his engines, the tech-dreadnought leaped into the air. His ascent was arrested when one of the defilers seized one of his legs in one of its claws and slammed his body face down into the ground. Vernus' flesh shook in its amniotic cradle. Vernus rotated his body completely around the waist axle and fired his combi-assault cannon's lascannon right at the shoulder joint of the arm that was holding him.

Not only did the lascannon blast sever the arm but the two legs behind mounted on the lower chassis of the vile construct. The Defiler screeched as it toppled to one side. Vernus made his chassis do an awkward backwards handspring aided by his ion engines in short bursts, rotating his waist back to its original position, as the other defiler attempted to plow aside the damaged one to get at him. He unleashed a storm of Krak missiles at the defiler, homing in on the hellish weapons on either side of its body and its tiny head. The resulting explosions rendered the defiler blind, an inhuman screech emerging from its hell-forged chassis.

Vernus shoved the blinded defiler's battle cannon to aim at the other defiler. When it fired blindly at point-blank range, the battle cannon destroyed its unintended target. Vernus backed out of range of its claws as they attempted to scramble for him. Vernus went behind the Defiler and climbed onto its lower torso and seized the back of its head, holding it in place as its neck joint wailed in protest. His Volkite Culverin came online, the servo arm on which it was mounted unfolded from his back and came over his shoulder to aim down into the sparking hole in the defiler where there was once its head. The dual barrels of the thermal ray weapon erupted, pouring into the defiler and rendering its warp-cursed innards to molten ruin.

It was as the Forgemaster ended the last of the warp engines, that the Grey Knights and the Ultramarine Captain Titus ended Nemeroth. The Warriors of the Ordo Malleus had telekinetically held the Chaos sorcerer while, Titus delivered a fatal blow to the half-transformed traitor's head. As he approached them, Justicar Styer placed the power source back into its container.
"That needs to be destroyed." Captain Titus objected.

The Justicar ignored Titus as he approached Vernus," Summon your Thunderhawk."

Vernus nodded his head in acknowledgement. He accessed his vox and gave his location once more to his battle brothers.

The Grey Knight's librarian was swift and thorough with the expunging Leandros' memories of them and he was conducted by to his chapter by the Magos Fenstricus. Titus was being vouched for by Inquisitor Furia and Justicar Styer. Tech-dreadnought Forgemaster returned to Ark Arizona to get everything he needed to accompany the Grey Knight back to their chapter homeworld to construct a tech-dreadnought frame for their Master of the Forge.

His Battle-Brothers would remain behind as would his forge. He had transferred to the Grey Knight's ship a partially complete Crimson Typhoon-pattern tech-dreadnought, processed lorelei crystals, and unprocessed blackstone. Everything else would be addressed at the Grey Knight forge.

Arch-Magos Veritas found the Forgemaster standing before the Imperator Titan hanging from its chains. The tech-dreadnought had several mechadendrites connected to the titan. Several other techpriests were communing with the titan in parallel with the Forgemaster, even the FabricatorLocum was joined with them. They stood as still as statues while the Arch-Magos waited patiently.

When they all moved once more, the noosphere became active with the discussion of what had transpired. Together the Forgemaster and the Fabricator-Locum turned to him.

"A design for the titan's completion has been settled upon." Said the dreadnought, his voice booming as if in declaration.

The Fabricator-Locum extended a mechadendrite, which the Arch-magos accordingly connected to. Upon examining the data, he retracted the data-probe and nodded.
He opened his vox and declared in binaric," Let it be done!"

With that declaration, the chamber exploded into cants of construction and rites of the forge. Manufactorums spun up and forges roared as the Ark moved forth to take into its womb a new form.

The small group of Blood Ravens gathered in their allotted hangar in the Ark to see off the ancient. The deck shook as the ancient walked through the cargo doors, his magnificent form walked by them as they bowed their heads in respect. At the end of the two flanking rows of his battle brothers was Arch-Magos Veritas and Sergeant Vale. The Forgemaster had brief exchange with the Archmagos in blurts of binaric before turning to the Sergeant.

"Sergeant, Graia has many secrets, all of you are to begin the process of investigating them. All artifacts of relevance are to be handed over to Archmagos Veritas or any of the magi of the Arizona. Those on the planet are highly suspect and are to be treated as such unless they are cleared by the forces of the Collegis Extremis. You have also been granted the authority to copy all knowledge you find to conduct back to our chapter as long as all originals over to the Archmagos. This is to take place until I either return or our 15 years is up. If said time expires before I return, Archmagos Veritas will arrange transport to the nearest group of our Chapter. Are my instructions clear?" The dreadnoughts voice was easily heard by the few of his battle brothers that were there.
"Yes Forgemaster." Said Sergeant Vale. His voice bore the weight of conviction of the orders dispensed to him.

The tech-dreadnought rotated on a foot to face his brothers. His booming voice took on a softer tone," Take care of each other. I will return."
As the dreadnought walked to the edge of the field that separated him from the airless void a clamor rang out from his battle-brothers.
"FOR THE EMPEROR…" Rang out Sergeant Vale

"FOR THE UNKNOWN PRIMARCH... " continued Brother Neihlem

Wait… thought the dreadnought… that phrasing…

"AND FOR THE FORGEMASTER!" Said all his Battle-brothers.

So that is how it is… Thought the Forgemaster. Without needing to be bidden, seamless in thought and action, the Forgemaster's ion engines fired, lifting his heavy body from the deck. He rocketed through the shield towards the Grey Knight ship. As he left them behind he thought about what was behind him and what was before him. Deep inside his amniotic tank, the muscles in his jaw slowly moved and…

...he smiled.

This is a list of all the Blood Ravens at Graia.

Tech-dreadnought Vernus, the Forgemaster

Techmarine Xentax

Techmarine acolyte Chelpanus

Techmarine acolyte Adjuctus

Acolyte Apothecary Incus

Sergeant Dexian Vale

Brother Harknus, devastator marine

Brother Ucledies, devastator marine

Brother Erebus, tactical marine

Brother Petricus, tactical sniper

Brother Neihlem, assault marine

Brother Belicus, assault marine