The lower vault erupted into war.
Storm bolters thundered as mass-reactive shells struck the creature from every direction.
Explosions engulfed its shifting form.
For several seconds the Witness disappeared behind smoke, fire, and fragments of shattered stone.
When the smoke cleared…
It still stood.
Its Vantablack armour had been torn apart by the barrage.
The wounds sealed before the Hidden Talons’ eyes.
Not with flesh.
Not with metal.
Its body simply…remembered another shape.
Captain Alaric understood.
“It isn’t healing.” Brother Cassian nodded grimly.
“It’s correcting itself.” — “For Corax!” Brother Remus charged.
His thunder hammer struck with enough force to crush a battle tank.
The blow connected squarely with the creature’s chest.
The impact cracked the black stone beneath its armour.
For the first time…
The Witness staggered.
Captain Alaric saw the opening.
“All squads!
Concentrate fire!” Another devastating volley filled the chamber.
The creature gave ground.
One step.
Then another.
It was not invincible.
— But it was learning.
The Witness watched every swing of Remus’ hammer.
Every movement of Alaric’s sword.
Every firing pattern of the Sternguard.
Golden eyes blinked across its shifting body.
Observing.
Calculating.
Then it moved.
It sidestepped Brother Remus’ next strike before the thunder hammer had completed its arc.
Its borrowed power sword swept upward.
Remus barely raised his storm shield in time.
The impact hurled the massive Terminator across the chamber.
He struck a silver pillar with enough force to crack both ceramite and stone.
— Brother Gideon roared.
“Protect the Captain!” The Terminators advanced as a living wall.
Storm shields locked together.
The Witness studied the formation.
Then…
It smiled with Alaric’s face.
“I know this.” It lowered its sword.
The Hidden Talons hesitated.
For a heartbeat…
Only a heartbeat.
That was all it needed.
The creature stepped through a gap that did not yet exist.
It moved before the formation changed.
As if it already knew what they were about to do.
Its blade pierced Brother Marcus’ side.
The Veteran cried out.
Brother Leon was beside him instantly, dragging him clear while the narthecium sealed ruptured arteries and pumped combat stimulants into his secondary heart.
“Gene-seed intact!” Leon reported.
“He’s alive!” Marcus struggled to his feet despite the wound.
“I can still fight.” Leon gave a single nod.
“Then fight.” — The Guardian entered the battle.
Unlike the Space Marines, it wielded no weapon.
It simply raised one of its six-fingered hands.
Silver light spread through the chamber.
The Witness recoiled.
For the first time…
It showed emotion.
Not pain.
Recognition.
The Guardian spoke in the same ancient language that echoed through the prison.
The Witness answered.
Neither the Hidden Talons nor the Alpha Legion understood the words.
Yet every warrior felt the meaning.
Old promises.
Broken oaths.
A duty carried beyond the lifetime of civilizations.
— Praetor Nemeon lowered his bolter.
He looked at Captain Alaric.
“My brothers have fought this thing for ten thousand years.” Alaric parried another blow from the Witness.
“And failed?” “No.” Nemeon’s expression darkened.
“We delayed it.” — Above them…
The boarding action continued.
Thunderhawks screamed through the void before landing inside Hangar Deck Primus.
Their assault ramps slammed onto the deck.
Chapter Master Corven was first to disembark.
Nearly two hundred Hidden Talons poured into the hangar behind him.
Second Company.
Third Company.
Fourth Company.
Dreadnought Brother Agastus strode from a heavy transport, his assault cannon already spinning.
The vast hangar appeared deserted.
Only the wreckage from Sergeant Gideon’s earlier battle remained.
Captain Lucien Voss knelt beside one of the fallen Alpha Legionnaires.
“The body’s gone.” Corven looked across the silent bay.
“No.” He pointed toward the polished deck.
“Tracks.” Fresh boot prints led away from the hangar.
Too many.
Far too many.
— Brother Darius frowned.
“First Company?” Corven slowly shook his head.
“Not marching like that.” The footprints were perfectly spaced.
Perfectly aligned.
Every stride identical.
No wounded.
No variation.
No human force marched with such unnatural precision.
“They’re not our brothers.” — Deep within the ship…
The Witness struck again.
Its form shifted.
For an instant…
It became Brother Marcus.
The transformation was flawless.
The same scar across the helmet.
The same damage to the left pauldron.
Even the fresh wound Leon had just treated.
Two Brother Marcuses now stood in the chamber.
One real.
One imitation.
The duplicate smiled.
Then fired.
Brother Marcus instinctively fired back.
The two bolts collided in mid-air.
Captain Alaric’s heart sank.
Not only had it copied their appearance…
It had learned their instincts.
— Brother Cassian closed his eyes.
He ignored the impossible silence surrounding the Warp.
Instead…
He reached inward.
Into memory.
Into the gene-seed of Corax that flowed within every Hidden Talon.
A single image came to him.
The Raven.
Not hunting.
Watching.
Waiting.
Understanding.
His eyes opened.
“My Captain!” Alaric glanced toward him while duelling the Witness.
“It learns by observing!” “I know!” “So stop showing it!” The realization struck instantly.
Every second of open combat made it stronger.
Captain Alaric keyed the company vox.
“Change doctrine!” “Break line of sight!” “Shadow Pattern Seven!” Every Hidden Talon understood.
It was an ancient Raven Guard doctrine.
Disappear.
Scatter.
Strike from darkness.
Deny the enemy a target.
Within seconds…
The battle changed.
The Terminators withdrew behind the great silver pillars.
Sternguard vanished into alcoves.
Vanguard Veterans melted into shadows.
The Witness looked around.
For the first time…
It appeared confused.
It had been prepared to fight warriors.
Instead…
It was forced to hunt Raven Guard.
Captain Alaric smiled beneath his helmet.
“Now…” His voice echoed across the company vox.
“…let us remind it why our Primarch was feared.” A single suppressed bolt round rang out from the darkness.
It struck the Witness squarely in the shoulder.
Before it could turn…
Another round struck from a different direction.
Then another.
Then another.
The Hidden Talons had become invisible.
The hunt had begun.
And for the first time since awakening…
The Witness no longer controlled the battle.
— Far above, unseen by either side, twenty flawless copies of the Hidden Talons reached the docking collars connecting the *Merciless Death* to the *Talons of Terra*.
One by one, they crossed into the Battle Barge.
No alarms sounded.
The sentries saluted their returning brothers.
The copies returned the salute perfectly.
Then they disappeared into the endless corridors of the Chapter’s flagship.
The enemy had entered the heart of the Hidden Talons.
No one yet realized the true battle had only just begun.