Chondax Shadow War

[b1soul]

Did any of you fellows who attended the Weekender get some insight into the fluff of the shadow war? Any info on how the Khan and legion command are kept ignorant of the AL's attacks?

[b1soul]

I just had some thoughts...

 

 

In Scars, Shiban had no idea about the AL's strikes against his legion. I therefore assumed that the Khan was ignorant as well. But the Khan had a habit of knowing more than he let on, and he hinted as such toward the end of the novel when he reveals that he knew about the factionalism and warrior lodges within the legion.

 

Perhaps the Khan was aware that the AL was making moves against his legion, but chose to keep the bulk of the legion uninformed about it, since the implications were potentially very disturbing. Perhaps the Khan waged his own shadow operation against the AL with only select WS units. For example, the FW White Scars assassination/lightning claw units shown at the Weekender.

 

In Scars, we got a good look into the warrior lodge's attempts to influence the Khan's decision-making, but we never get much of a look into the Khan's thinking or what he's busy off-screen (perhaps dealing with and trying to figure out what the AL were doing)

 

I'm not sure if my theory entirely squares with the Khan's reactions below:

Ullanor was the last time they had spoken. It was strange – too strange – to think of that massive soul lying under the crude, hacking blades of the Space Wolves. The Crimson King had been so consummately powerful, so steeped in the rich arts of heaven, the very stuff of the veil; if he had truly fallen, then the galaxy had become a warped and confusing place.

 

‘Khagan,’ came a voice from the open doorway.

 

The Khan turned to see Qin Xa standing before him. The keshig master was already in battle-armour, a hulking suit of blast-scorched Terminator plate covered in the trophies of his unmatched combat record.

 

‘I need more,’ the Khan told him. ‘More information. I will not attack my brother without confirmation.’

 

Qin Xa bowed. ‘The star-speakers receive more visions.’

 

‘Do they confirm it?’

 

‘Some do.’ The master spoke haltingly. ‘Others do not. We have contradictory interpretations.’

 

‘Explain.’

 

‘Some tell us what we already know – Leman Russ has turned rebel, driven by hatred of Magnus. The Warmaster orders us to bring him to judgement. The Twentieth Legion may already have engaged them.’

 

‘Alpharius’s snakes,’ said the Khan contemptuously.

 

‘But we have other reports,’ said Qin Xa. ‘Just listen to this: they say that the Warmaster has turned renegade and taken many Legions with him. We are commanded to return to the Throneworld and stand beside Lords Dorn and Russ to defend it.’

 

For that, the Khan had no words. He stared at Qin Xa, feeling the blood coursing hard in his temples.

 

‘Madness,’ he said weakly. Thoughts raced through his mind in quick succession, each one half-formed and pregnant with possibilities. It had begun on Chondax, right at the end – the first inkling that all was not well. There had been no detail then, no authentication, just a stray star-speaker vision of dubious provenance. It should have been easy to dismiss, to put down to the warping power of the veil, but it hadn’t. It had worn at him, unravelling his sleep.

 

The Warmaster stands upon a precipice.

 

It had been hard to know what to make of that. Should he have recalled the Legion to find out? What did it even mean?

 

‘Madness,’ he said again.

 

‘Indeed,’ replied Qin Xa calmly. ‘Every star-speaker in the fleet is having a different dream. The zadyin arga are working to uncover the truth.’

 

‘The truth?’ The Khan laughed hollowly. ‘Which truth?’ He felt his hand instinctively reaching for his blade, and pulled it back. ‘I need more. Why has the darkness lifted only now?’

 

Qin Xa bowed in apology. ‘Every effort is being made to–’

 

‘Is he dead?’ demanded the Khan, frustration mastering him momentarily. ‘That is the first task. I need to know if Magnus lives. Tell them that.’

 

‘Nothing can be divined from Prospero. It seems likely that–’

 

‘Not good enough!’ roared the Khan, balling his immense fists. He felt fury welling, not the wholesome rage of the battlefield, but a choked, impotent rage of ignorance. ‘I have the strength of the Legion arrayed before me, ready to strike. The ordu is assembled, and yet none can tell me who the enemy is. Tell them if they cannot interpret correctly then I shall come up to their spires and hammer their dreams into order for them.’

 

Qin Xa weathered the storm, standing silently while the primarch raged. ‘It will be done.’

 

‘Quickly,’ insisted the Khan, giving in to the urge to grasp the hilt of his dao. ‘I give them twelve hours. We will not remain in this backwater while the galaxy burns – wherever this war is, we will find it.’

 

A low chime sounded from a large pedestal writing desk in the far corner of the chamber. A hololith flickered into existence over the varnished surface and the old scar-latticed face of Hasik Noyan-Khan crackled into life.

 

The Khan swung to face it. ‘News?’

 

‘Of a kind,’ replied Hasik, his voice wavering with static. ‘Ships are materialising on the edge of augur-range. No response to our comms, and they appear to be deploying for attack.’

 

‘The Wolves?’ asked the Khan. ‘Or more of ours?’

 

‘Neither,’ reported Hasik, his normally flat voice punctuated by uncertainty. ‘Alpha Legion vessels.’

 

Qin Xa’s eyes narrowed. The Khan almost felt like laughing. Nothing made sense. After years insulated from the rest of the galaxy, locked in a campaign that had promised little glory and much routine hard work, every certainty seemed to have been twisted into a comical level of incongruity.

 

Our warriors are trained by this game. They learn to see threats from all sides.‘Hold position,’ ordered the Khan.

 

‘Try to talk to them, and do not fire unless fired upon. Some witchery is at work here and I will not be dragged into it without knowing why. I will join you shortly. Until then, you know your craft.’

 

Hasik’s hololithic head bowed and the link guttered out.

 

Qin Xa raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘I would offer counsel, Khagan,’ he said, ‘if I had any.’

 

The Khan clasped his gauntlets together. No patterns emerged. His tactician’s mind – far more acute than Guilliman or Dorn ever had the grace to recognise – fell into its familiar run: analyse, project, counter, surprise.

 

‘We must be light on our feet here, keshiga,’ he murmured. ‘We are like blind men fighting the sighted.’

 

Despite everything, he felt the first stirrings of enjoyment kindle in his soul. He looked out at the starfield beyond the chamber viewport, weighing options, balancing likelihoods. This was what he had been born for: not the running down of greenskins, but the Great Game, the clash of powers.

 

‘Do you remember, Xa?’ he said. ‘You, Yesugei, Hasik and me against a whole world – a hundred empires, each with a thousand blades. It has been too long since we had a real challenge.’

 

Qin Xa looked unsure. ‘Then who is the enemy now, Khagan?’ he asked. ‘That is all I need to know.’

 

‘They are all the enemy,’ said the Khan, striding to the doorway that would take him to the bridge. ‘They always have been.’

 

...

 

‘You say you see the truth,’ snarled the Khan. ‘You know nothing of the truth. If you had done as I had commanded, I would be telling you of it now. Instead I will only tell you this – the Legion is the ordu of Jaghatai, and none bear their blades in it save by my word. Thus it has been since we first fought together on the Altak, and no power of the universe, be it Horus or the Emperor or the gods themselves, will ever change that.’

 

Hasik’s eyes stared wildly, and blood foamed up at the corner of his mouth. His empty gauntlets flexed impotently.

 

‘You were given freedom that no other lord would countenance,’ said the Khan, his voice heavy with bitterness. ‘Thus do you repay me, and thus do I strike you down.’

 

There are some strikes against the theory above. The Khan is a secretive fellow to outsiders, but he doesn't seem to be too big on withholding critical information from his own men...and you'd think the Khan and his trusted Keshig master Qin Xa, when confronted by the AL fleet, would have exchanged some words about the AL shadow actions against the WS if the Khan had been generally aware of them. On the plus side, I think the bolded part above could be interpreted as indication that the Khan knows of the AL's shadowy shenanigans in Chondax.

 

Another theory is that the AL were operating primarily with loyalist motivations and targeting only pro-Horus lodge members. This factionwas led by Hasik Noyan-Khan. Perhaps Hasik was aware of the AL's strikes against WS lodge members and chose to keep this information from the Khan. He may have wanted to avoid getting the Khan involved, which could lead to the Khan figuring out the lodge connection and arriving at his own conclusions.

 

I think this exchange between Shiban and Hasik hints that Hasik might be playing dumb (the Noyan-Khan's reaction is strangely muted):

 

Hasik regarded him. ‘Being khan suits you, Shiban. Yesugei always spoke well of you.’

 

‘He is generous.’

 

‘Not always. How was the work on Phemus Four?’

 

‘Foul.’ There was little point in hiding the truth. ‘For a long time I wondered why it had taken so long to purge. Once I got there, I stopped wondering.’

 

Hasik chuckled. ‘The task is always completed, though.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘Why did you wish to see me?’

 

‘About Phemus. There were things that concerned me.’

 

‘Oh?’

 

‘I was told the delay in compliance was down to the hain,’ said Shiban. ‘They did fight hard, but it felt wrong. The whole planet felt wrong.’

 

‘It was a difficult campaign.’

 

‘No more so than many others. I asked my brotherhood to look harder.’

 

‘And what did they find?’

 

‘Bodies,’ said Shiban. ‘Buried, with legionary blade wounds and no sign of greenskins around them.’

 

‘Legionary blades? You are sure?’

 

‘My Apothecary made a careful study. He is sure. I was going to ask you if you had received any similar reports.’

 

Hasik placed his hands together. ‘None at all.’

 

Shiban nodded slowly. ‘That is a shame. I had hoped to find some explanation.’

 

‘Other than the one you have. Tell me what that is.’

 

‘No, I do not have one. There were no other deployments on Phemus. We were alone with the greenskins.’

 

Hasik thought for a moment. ‘But you think there were others.’

 

‘No.’ Shiban shook his head, still caught between several half-worked theories. ‘I do not know. My first thought was strife between brotherhoods. Then the Alpha Legion arrived at Chondax – it crossed my mind that… But why would they?’

 

‘That Legion’s actions are never obvious,’ Hasik sighed. ‘Perhaps even to them. Have you consulted others?’

 

‘Outside my brotherhood, no.’

 

Hasik nodded. ‘I authorised all deployments to Phemus. I can look again at the casualty figures – szu-Ilya keeps complete records these days. But you came here for more than that.’

 

Shiban opened his fist. ‘It may be nothing. We found this on one of the bodies. I have never seen it before.’

 

He handed Hasik the medal. The noyan-khan held it up to the light, turning it slowly.

 

‘This is a Chogorian mark,’ Hasik said, noting the hawk’s head. ‘Silver? Not pure, surely. Did you analyse it?’

 

‘We did not have time.’

 

Hasik handled the medal carefully, as if something about it made him uneasy. Shiban understood that – he’d felt the same way.

 

‘Leave this with me,’ said Hasik. ‘The zadyin arga may wish to see it. And, please, remain on the Tchin-Zar.’

 

‘What do you think?’

 

‘A battle-token? Perhaps. In any case, you were right to bring it to me.’

 

Shiban felt relief. It had been hard to decide whether to raise the issue at all.

 

‘One thing,’ added Hasik thoughtfully. ‘Do you have Terrans in your brotherhood?’

 

‘None.’

 

‘But you fought with them.’

 

‘On Chondax. The Brotherhood of the Moon, under Torghun Khan.’

 

Hasik nodded. ‘I see.’

 

‘If I may ask–’

 

‘I do not know. It might be helpful, it might not. I will make inquiries.’

 

Shiban saw that it was time to leave. He rose to his feet and bowed. ‘Thank you, noyan-khan. Please tell me if there is anything more to be done.’

 

‘There will be, I am sure.’ Hasik didn’t rise. He toyed with the medal, turning it in his hand just as Shiban had done. ‘I will contact you before the next warp translation.’

 

Shiban hesitated. He was pushing his luck. ‘I do not suppose–’

 

‘I know where we are going? Of course I do, though the Khagan has kept that knowledge close. You will find out soon enough.’

 

Shiban nodded. More secrecy.

 

‘My thanks, noyan-khan,’ he said, bowing.