[Trazyn has barely finished speaking.]
[You draw one long breath inside the skull helm, long enough that the sound draws his attention.]
[You already know how this ends. The Thirteenth Black Crusade will be Abaddon's most successful campaign yet. The Chaos horde, swollen on the war's accumulated power, will grind the Cadian Gate itself to dust, along with the trillions of Imperial lives standing behind it. That collapse will tear a rift straight across the Imperium's stars, one that never closes.]
[Now you're turning over whether you can change any part of that fate. Or if you can't, whether you can at least save more of the Imperium's people before it falls.]
[Your gaze slides over to Trazyn's metal frame.]
[Without hesitating, you hold out a vibranium hand and ask him for more. Reinforcements.]
[Trazyn, here to support the Imperium in his own fashion, doesn't argue the point.]
[He leads you deeper into the passage ahead, the Empathic Obliterator held loose at his side.]
[You realize almost at once that you have stepped into an enormous underground cavern. The tunnels wind on, long and dark, and somewhere above you the ground shudders and rumbles with the weight of a war still being fought.]
[You and Trazyn settle on a wider stretch of the cavern, a place to pause.]
[Trazyn's metal head tilts slowly side to side, and one Tesseract Labyrinth after another opens in front of you.]
[A heartbeat later, a Custodian steps free of the first, golden armor catching what light there is, guardian spear in hand. Behind him come a dozen towering Astartes in Salamanders green.]
[The Custodian, boots barely settled on the rock, glances once at Trazyn, then fixes on you in your vibranium armor.]
[Before you can even give him your name, he comes at you, spear already levelled.]
[You shake your skull helm, more exasperated than alarmed.]
[You raise a vibranium hand and the Ten Rings answer, a burst of humming metal that knocks the Custodian off his feet.]
[At the same moment, the dozen Astartes, still shaking off the stasis field, catch the low words you give them: your name, your title.]
[The Salamanders go still for a beat. Then, without further hesitation, their armor comes online and they fall in at your side, though the muzzles of their bolters drift, not quite by accident, toward Trazyn.]
[Trazyn, generous as ever, opens another vault. A full company of Ultramarines steps out to join the crowd.]
[Trazyn's mechanical voice rises behind them, and from it you learn something you didn't expect. This company has slept since the Horus Heresy itself.]
[You move toward them at once and speak briefly with their company commander, a man still wary of his surroundings, and of the alien standing so close by.]
[It takes some doing, but you talk them down. For now, they accept who you say you are.]
[What Trazyn releases from the next Tesseract Labyrinth is different again: a lean, sharp-eyed Inquisitor and her retinue, a company of Stormtroopers she calls the Eagle Legion.]
[The moment she clears the stasis field, her eyes sweep the cavern once, cold, and she rounds on Trazyn with a string of curses, bolt pistol already coming up.]
[Her Stormtroopers raise their lasguns without hesitation, aimed at Trazyn and, by extension, the Astartes beside him.]
[Once again, you are forced to step in.]
[Giving her your name and title does double duty. It explains, to everyone listening, exactly where and when they are, and what war they have woken into.]
[In the end, the Inquisitor, who gives her name as Greyfax, decides her business with Trazyn can wait, out of respect for you rather than him, and lets the pistol drop slowly to her side.]
[Trazyn's eye sockets glow a colder green, and he stops pulling anything else from the vaults.]
[He crosses toward you, the Empathic Obliterator in hand, under the silent watch of every Astartes and mortal in the cavern.]
["Primarch, time is short. Chaos Warmaster Abaddon has renewed his assault on the surface above. I am needed to assist Archmagos Belisarius Cawl in activating the Blackstone Pylons beneath Cadia, to hold back the spread of chaotic power."]
["Now. Do what you humans do best. Remember our arrangement. When this war ends, my clone will find you."]
[Trazyn is barely finished speaking. He does not look back. His pace only quickens as he vanishes deeper into the tunnels.]
[You look over the Astartes and mortal warriors gathered around you, silent for a moment, then slowly raise a vibranium hand.]
[From simulator storage you draw out weapons and ammunition in bulk, stacking them into a growing pile before the crowd.]
["I know you have doubts. About who I say I am, about how I came to be standing here. I don't have time to answer them properly. The Imperium doesn't have that kind of time to spare."]
["Astartes. Mortal warriors. Brothers and sisters of humanity, all of you. Will you stand with me and fight to save the Cadian Gate?"]
["We are willing!"]
["For the Emperor!"]
[Every voice answers it. Inquisitor Greyfax and her Eagle Legion, the Ultramarines, the Salamanders, all of them.]
[The crowd surges forward with a low, rolling growl, gathering ammunition fast, shouldering heavy weapons.]
[You take a breath and stride forward, the vibranium armor carrying you to the front of the gathering.]
[An Ultramarines standard-bearer presses an old, solemn Imperial banner into your hands, its double-headed eagle worn but unmistakable.]
[You draw the Blood Scythe's edge across your palm without ceremony, and let the pale gold blood that wells up fall across the Imperium's banner.]
[The banner trembles, and golden flame erupts along its cloth. Whatever doubt was left in the mortals and Astartes around you, it burns away with it.]
[At the back of the crowd, the Custodian drops to one knee, guardian spear grounded, visibly annoyed about it, but a son of the Emperor is a son of the Emperor, and he acknowledges it.]
["Come on. Let's go save Cadia."]
[You raise the blood-lit Imperial banner high, fire streaming off it, and your roar carries over the whole crowd.]
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