-XII-
Aboard the Golema's armoury the newly formed squad Extus was preparing for the upcoming deployment.
Chaplain Galieo had earlier blessed their weapons and armours and now the servitors were carrying it to their owners side as the marines
don their armour and take their oaths.
Achagon approached Julius as he was writing his oath to his chainsword beneath the altar of everlasting blessing of the machine spirit.
"Sergeant." Achagon called.
"I'm not a sergeant any more." said Julius without turning his attention still fixed at his oath. He waited the ink to dry and mouthed a few prayers to the machine spirit to let his chainsword not falter before turning to his old friend.
"I know, Julius. I just wanted to thank you for recommending me in action." said Achagon.
"I know you are wounded but we still had time and figured you could use the opportunity." said Julius taking up his chainsword and walking towards his armour cabinet.
Achagon followed at his heels. "I know it must be hard on you, losing your rank." said Achagon.
"No, actually it felt better, now I can focus less on my failures and more on my redemption." Julius said.
"You don't need to redeem yourself brother. You did what was right, you saved lives of the guardsmen." pointed out Achagon.
"Our brothers died because of me." said Julius his voice sad.
"They fulfilled their duty to the Emperor. I am proud that I had such courageous brothers that fought by our side to death." said Achagon.
"I am proud of them too." said Julius turning towards Achagon.
Achagon winced at the gaze of his former sergeant. He felt something changed in Julius, those were not the eyes of Julius he knew. His eyes looked more dead. Emotionless but Achagon was able to sense the great contained wraith behind those dead eyes. Once they encounter Orks again Julius would lose control, he thought.
"And I am proud of you, brother. You did the right thing even against our orders bid us otherwise." said Achagon.
"I did, but in the end it didn't matter, guardsmen still died and Idagenia was left to the Orks." he mouthed the word Orks as if spitting.
Achagon was shocked with the change in Julius, Julius always looked calm and sure of himself even when the fires of battle burn all around him. But now he felt enraged and cold. It was as if someone tore the humanity out of the former sergeant and filled with frozen blood, but once those blood will face the fires of battle they would ignite in great wraith.
"Don't push yourself too hard brother, I want you to be okay." said Achagon concern in his voice.
"I would be okay when this sword is deep inside Ork guts." said Julius looking at his chainsword.
"I know you will make through what you're going through brother. You're strong." encouraged Achagon.
"I appreciate that brother, I'm also content that you got what you deserved." Julius said pointing to Achagon's sniper rifle at it's rack.
"They gave me a chance to payback those Orks and that is all I could ask for it." said Achagon.
"That's good, after your injury I feared you would rust in the med-bay, an idle mind is fertile for corruption. You need to get ready for what is to come, take care, old friend" said Julius a forced smile appeared on his face.
Achagon thought that Julius probably forget how to smile after all what he went through, his shame and depression was plain of Julius' face.
"Take care, brother" said Achagon then turned and went to his armour cabinet and started checking his newly issued sniper rifle. It was unusual for Tactical marines to be equipped with snipers but his exceptional skills made it the perfect weapon for him.
As he checked the weapon for faults and made his oaths upon the weapon he caught a glimpse of the sergeant of the Xiphos Assault squad looking in his direction with distaste.
Sergeant Horatus was a devout Codex follower and was clearly displeased with the unorthodox methods employed within the squad.
"We have a new Modius." thought Achagon but didn't showed any signs of it.
The entire team was a mixture of weaponry and marine from three different squads but Achagon was the center of attention since he was only one without a squad. Others treated him like a poor animal that lost its home.
On the other hand, they generally ignored Julius because of his repenting status. Some Codex supporters might even suggest that Julius was executed or turn into a servitor for his insubordination, but Chaplain Galieo was smarter than that. A Space Marine is hard to make, one who is so resourceful and well versed in the art of war was harder. And Galieo didn't wasted his resources in petty bickering. The Chaplain supported the Codex in his every breath but he also understood the great ideas of their Primarch.
Guilliman was a tactical genius himself, both mastering the art of warfare and the art of ruling. He ruled over Space Marine and man alike. His vision for the perfect marine army was a great fighting force that can overcome all enemies with their might and wits. Galieo felt that it would be against the will of the Primarch and the Emperor if they turned themselves into mindless zealots like the Ecclesiarchy.
Many Codex supporters claimed that the Codex itself is the perfect formation for any Space Marines force, but Galieo's experience showed time and again that the war formations does not survive the war itself.
Once the theoretic planning leaves the command room it was in the domain of bloody practical fighting.
The clear cut structure of the Codex might be better suited for those who deem themselves Lions or Ultras but a Spear is not a dramatical weapon. It is a practical one, a weapon that retained its practical, cold, murdering tip for ages. From the old cave-ancestor's sticks to the modern explosive hunting lances of the Imperial Guard rough riders.
A weapon old as humanity itself.
"We deploy at sector-seven-four, then we move into the main command structure of the Lion Warriors to gather intel. Once we learn what is going on at the planet Echtesia we return back to Golema and plan our next move." explained Ioras as the squad Extus stood around the map of Echtesia floating in the middle of the room.
"What we hope to accomplish there?" asked Deciaci, an assault marine with a tempered look.
"You all know of the deception of the Lion Warriors." said Ioras and the squad nodded.
"We need to learn what are their motives in tricking us, their actions indicate secrets and lies. This might very well lead to heresy. If the Lion Warriors are corrupt in any way we need to know before we commit ourself to the battles raging all across Idagenia system." explained Ioras.
"What of the geography, these maps are ages old." said Rexus his analytic eyes seeing the subtle dating of the maps.
"This is the best we got, the local Mechanicum of the Altacra Forgeworld were not hospitable enough to share us with a recent mapping of the planet. We assume that they are also in league with the Lion Warriors." said Ioras.
"I've never trusted the machine-faced bastard to begin with." said Assault Sergeant Horatus.
Ioras ignored the always-angry sergeants comment and continued.
"We go in via drop pod and when we deem our objectives are satisfied we leave via Thunderhawk transport." said Ioras and explained further details he gone into more detailed expositions of the plan but Brother Rexus cut in.
"What is this designation 'Pleasure World'?" asked Rexus.
Ioras wasn't bothered with the interruption and said "It means people at the Echtesia is extremely rich and powerful. It is designation to given to special worlds which are built and maintained to be so called paradises."
"And this world of pleasure wasn't even fazed slightly by the great Ork invasion that the Idagenia system is going through?" asked Rexus cleverly deducing the flaw in logic.
"I agree, these maps sure are ages old but still we didn't get any military or civilian signals from Echtesia at all." pointed out Julius.
"Chaplain himself thinks that there is something amiss with the whole planet, Chapter Master asked us to go to Echtesia but the Lion Warriors went the effort to change the name of the planet in the transmission they tempered." said Ioras.
Squad didn't show any displeasure towards Ioras' usual casual disrespect towards Chaplain Galieo, using his rank instead of his name. They all knew Ioras was no mere marine, he was steel upon steel. They knew he faced the worse and survived it.
"Does this means there are no Orks upon Echtesia?" asked Horatus clearly annoyed with the lack of a clear enemy.
"We don't know at this time, assume nothing but expect everything. We are going in blind on this one." said Ioras.
"We will bring the Emperor's light and reveal their foul secrets to make those who lie to us pay." said Horatus.
"For the Emperor" declared Ioras.
Squad chanted back.