We shall be his finest warriors, us men who give ourselves to him. Like clay he shall mold us and in the furnace of war he shall forge us.

We shall be made of Iron will and steely sinew.

In great armor he shall clad us.

And with the mightiest weapons shall we be armed.

We will be untouched by plague or disease.

No sickness shall blight us

We shall have such tactics strategies and machines that no foe shall best us in battle.

We are his bulwark against the terror

We are the defenders of humanity.

We are Space Marines

And we shall know no fear.

It was a long night on the world of Baal the blood angels fortress monastery being the only light in a sea of darkness it was silent throughout most of the halls. Tapestries of ancient victories draped the walls. The only noise in the monastery emanated from the dueling room the sound of swords clashing against one another.

Two men stood in a ceremonial arena and commenced fighting. One of the men looked about to be in his mid 40s and was clad in red armor he had long blonde hair and wielded a mighty sword. The other man looked to be around 17 years old and was in Mark 10 tacticus power armor. The younger man gets knocked down from a sword strike.

"A flawed attack Giovanni your still forgetting to use your upper arm strength" said the older astartes his face was a face of a veteran who had seen hundreds of battles across countless worlds.

"Give me a bolter any day" Giovanni joked in his usual joking tone.

"A bolter eventually will run out of ammunition" he raises his sword

"This will not"

"Mephiston" A voice calls from the end of the hall It came from another astartes clad in golden armor.

"Commander Dante" Mephiston sais back to his leader.

"How is he doing" Asked Dante his view shifting to Giovanni

"Making slow progress my lord but he has shown improvement"

"Very good, Giovanni I have a task for you"

Dante gestures his hand towards Mephiston commanding him to leave the room. Mephiston does as he is instructed.

"I have accepted your request, you and your squadmates will be sent off to a hive world that we have lost contact with your objective will be to find out what happened and report back, the imperium has already sent in a fleet of ships but we have lost contact with them."

"Your squad awaits your arrival at the thunderhawk landing pad" .

Giovanni made his way to the armory were he picked up an auto bolt rifle and acquired a helmet he then left the room and made his way to the landing pad he then saw another fellow primaris marine at the end of the hallway he had black shoulder pauldrons with red trip meaning he was the sergeant and the leader of the squad.

"Brother Giovanni" The sergeant spoke up his voice was deeper than most with a hint of raspiness to it, obviously a veteran of the indomitus crusade.

"I am brother sergeant Lucas it is an honor to meet you"

"Thank you sergeant it will be an honor to fight beside you"

The two made their way into the thunderhawk and acquired seats beside the rest of the squad.

The rest of his fellow squad members hid their faces behind their helmets but they all were watching Giovanni.

It was a long and silent ride the only sounds being the hum of the engines through the coldness of space. Muted clicks could be heard from the helmets of the marines sitting closest next to Giovanni, He knew full well that they were speaking with each other over a shared vox channel casting judgement upon him no doubt.

"Brothers" Giovanni said. The marines then shift their view to Giovanni.

"You judge me?" He said again.

"No brother" one astartes sais. Silence plagues the room once more. Then an astartes takes his helmet off. His face was young he looked about 21 years old he had blonde hair done in a mohawk and blue eyes.

"My name is Tychus"

The last two squad members followed Tychus' example

"I am Marcus"

" I am Gwain"

The pilot of the thunderhawk spoke over the vox channel

"Get ready brothers we have arrived"