161. Eldar

On the way to Corred they lost only a few support vessels in the warp. Nobody knew what had happened to them. Three of the smaller ships had simply vanished from their convoy without a trace. Considering what could have gone wrong, this hardly figured in the greater scheme of things.
They had five days of real time travel before they reached the planet in which the planning for their approach began. It was the first time that Vox allowed Titus to join her. She still shouldered the brunt of the work but after watching the tides of the future for hours and jotting down the potentialities, she discussed facts and possibilities with him.
The closer they came, the clearer her premonitions got and mere hours before they would deploy, they found themselves standing side by side, staring at the heaps of paper on her working table in a depressed fashion. Each page before them represented a different timeline. Risks, casualties and probabilities stood between battle- and movement plans.
The paper that had their undivided attention was the cleanest by far.
It stated zero casualties and maximum damage to the Orks but it contained one dreadful word: Eldar.
Titus had reminded Vox about the Ork situation they had encountered on Corred during their Deathwatch time and she had been able to find out why the Waaagh was still raging despite the warboss having been removed back then: The Orks had come into possession of an Eldar artefact. A helmet to be precise. Apparently, the thing enhanced the cranial capacity of the wearer. Any Ork who put it on would turn into a xenotropical mastermind, enabling it to fight, kill and grow until it could take over the position as warboss. When the former boss had died, another xeno had picked the thing up and the cycle had begun anew.
Mainly hindered by their small numbers the delegation of Eldar, who wanted their artefact back, had proved unable to retrieve it so far. Their predicament had been greatly increased by Vox and Titus blandly killing about half of them in the canyons. The year or so that had passed since then had brought them to the brink of aborting their mission but as of yet they were still on the planet.
The timeline on the page before them stipulated that they would side with the Eldar and enable them to regain the wretched helmet. The Eldar attack would take out the current warboss with pinpoint precision and leave the Orks leaderlessly disorganised. The ensuing turmoil would allow the Space Marines to sweep the Orks off the surface with not so much as a single casualty on their side.
Vox and Titus stared at the small, curly writing.
Aiding the enemy to gain the maximum benefit for their own side.
It was what Sanguinius had killed Elaine for.
Heresy.
Treason against the edicts of a god who did not exist yet.
But the people who believed in him existed and other than the shell they had made their god, they were not far off.
They were right here.
The political trouble was of little concern to them. They were sure that they could have hushed this coup up but they both thought of Elaine. They thought of Solomon and the pictures of the exploding Aurum. They thought of Ferone.
There was nothing for it.
If the choice was to betray their people or live up to them, there was no choice.
They exchanged a glance.
Slowly, Vox reached for the page and held it up. With a quiet “whoomph” it went up in flames all at once. Thoughtfully, she wiped the ashes off the table and selected the page with the next best outcome.
It was time. 
The lovers exchanged a brief, comforting embrace before Titus left to arrange for the council of war to gather. 
It was customary among the Wings of War that the honour guard of the highest ranking officer was present in the final briefing for a battle. This way, the members of the guard were up to date with the plan of action and could function as proxies, be sent out with new orders or take over if the commander was killed. Formerly, Celeste’s chosen six had lined the walls but since Vox had named her retinue, it should have been Aegis in the room with them. For this battle however, Vox planned to personally lead her honour guard and Ferone on an assault against the Eldar and had prepared a separate briefing for them. Without the need to have them present, Titus had arranged that they be geared up for deployment and stand ready as the first unit to the surface. The room was still crowded because the lack of their leaders made it prudent for every captain to take her proxy along to serve the same purpose. 
Space Marine and human commanders were already present when their saint entered in full war gear. Calmly the angel spread several empty sheets of paper on the desk and under their attentive glances started to speak.
The briefing for Oertha back then had been a spur of the moment thing. Possibilities ascertained and decisions reached on the spot. For those present it had already been impressive enough. To see the planned instructions unfold before them now, robbed them of their speech entirely.
Vox addressed each in turn and explained in detail what she wanted whom to do when and especially, what she wanted them to avoid. She drew battle plans as she spoke, could tell them about difficulties with the terrain and weather conditions they would encounter, pointed out major threats among the xenos and gave advice on how to address them.
She talked for half an hour, gave every officer in the room specific instructions but spared them the knowledge that they would lose more than half a company’s worth of fighters today. However accurate she got she could not micromanage everything. In the crimps and spasms of time Astartes would die.
Vox ended the briefing under silent, owlish stares. None of them had any questions.
They filed out behind her to use the few hours left before deployment to mobilise the troops. Getting half a chapter moving took time and was included in Vox’s plan. It was important that she and her special squad confronted the Eldar before the sky was ablaze with drop pods to announce their arrival.
Aegis together with Ferone waited for them in the hangar. It was the first time, the honour guard of the angel all displayed their new colours. Ferone, in the Deathwatch heraldry fitted in well among the black and red of Vox’s chosen colours and the group was a sight to behold as they stood gathered in front of the ‘Cornix’. The commander had made it into a gift for Vox after she had asked the men of him and the ship’s silver highlights had been repainted to fit her new assignment.
While Tiberius performed the appropriate rites and brought them out into the open, Vox began the briefing. The male techmarine would stay with the ship to supply air support when the aliens took fright and tried to fly away. The rest of them listened intently.
The angel had been able to ascertain that the Eldar had brought few melee fighters, some of which had already been killed in different circumstances. Since the Space Marines would ambush them inside their ship, most of them would pose little threat.
However, the leader of the group was a competent psyker and close combat veteran. On top of this Vox was sure they would encounter Warp Spiders. These specialised enemies could pose a serious threat to Astartes in confined spaces when they teleported into the wrong place at the wrong time. Having seen them wounded in several timelines, she specifically impressed onto Ferone and Arrick to be alert to this threat and promised to provide surveillance at critical moments. Not being as well armoured as her warriors, she chose to avoid tiny alien corridors in which dodging incoming attacks was impossible. Staying behind was far from her liking but hindering her fighters by creating the need to protect her was out of the question. She would be far better employed using her senses to provide orientation and tactical supervision and had therefore decided accordingly. When all was explained, the busy silence of imminent violence settled over them.
Despite the fleet having engaged the Ork vessels in orbit, their flight was smooth and untroubled. Tiberius piloted them through the space battle without apparent difficulty.
Titus had time to reminisce about having experienced a far more turbulent transit in this vicinity, recall the comrades of yore and appreciate the companions of now. A gentle elation overcame him at this moment which started to reverberate through the group when his approving glance was answered with the occasional grin from one of their warriors. Vox was the last to catch it. Sunken in the gloom over the heavy choice she had made, it took her lover’s touch to pull her into the present. Woken from the thought of dozens of her sisters dying needlessly, she looked around. 
The moment she connected to the group was almost viscerally tangible. It happened when her eyes came to rest on Ferone. Suddenly, Vox breathed more freely.
Yes, she had chosen to send Astartes to their death but with this she had decided to use them for, not against the purpose which they followed with their life’s essence and in Ferone she found the fire of one for whom retribution finally promised alleviation.
Thinking that Elaine’s death could be amended was beside the point but maybe the wounds it had left could be dressed and one day healed.
The sudden certainty flooding her soul brought a steely glint into her gaze that was ever so becoming for a warrior and among their comrades, each Astartes made ready to serve their purpose.