Silence, the silence was the only thing that they could hear despite the smell of chemicals and the distant sound of all of the fighting that was still happening they could only hear silence.
Those around them could only stare quietly because something like this was unheard of.
"Did I live with Honer" the guardsman struggled to ask the spacemarine who knelt in front of him.
No one said anything as they watched the space marine help the guardsman make a fist before helping him raise his arm.
The spacemarine blue armor was still as breathtaking as the day he had first received it, even if it had its share of battle scars. The guardsman's green armor was nearly nonexistent, the enemy weapons had torn it apart, and it was as if the man hadn't worn any armor.
"I can not speak, for how the men that fought beside you lived their lives before today."
"But yes brother all of you lived gloriously, now rest my friend. Go and stand before the emperor knowing that on this day, you and all of those who fought alongside you, lived your lives with more honor than most men ever will."
Silently the marine slowly and carefully opened the guardsman's hand and shook firmly but gently, before taking a small disk that the man had held onto until his last breath.
The spacemarine ignored the gasps from the soldiers around him, when he gently placed his bolt gun in the guardsman's left hand, before placing the guardsman lass gun in the man's right hand.
He opened a small pouch which he kept a nutrient pack before removing his helmet and taking a bite from it, then he placed the rest on the dead guardsman's lap.
"In life, we served different roles, but we were both Humans."
"We were both born into a galaxy that wishes for nothing more than our destruction, and the beings that live in it wish that we had never been born."
"You, our brother, and all of those that serve beside us do the one thing that the galaxy and all of its filth can never do. We live, either on the battlefield or normal lives."
"But we live, You lived Gloriously and so you now rest honorably."
"Live with honor, die with glory." the spacemarine says before he puts his helmet back on and takes his bolt back.
He ignores the corps burners who immediately walk towards the guardsman's dead body before dragging it towards the fire and throwing it onto the pile, the man's body is just one more body burning among the many.
He slowly walks toward a member of the penal legion and while his steps are slow for a space marine, to the normal humans around him he is still moving faster than any of them ever could.
He stands in front of a mutant, a woman that has a pair of horns growing out of her head, he can see the fear in her eyes.
"You were present the last ti,e that he and I met, are you familiar with the words and how we find one another?" he asks her.
He can see the mutant slowly nod before she sees the disk in his hand, and it's only then that she begins to understand why he is asking her this.
"No member of the Ecclesiarchy may join us, because they weren't present that day."
"What one of us eats, so do the others, both in life and in death."
"When we meet again, even if it's just two of us, we are all present. Even we are the same ones who met before." he hears her say to him.
The two of them slowly raise their hands and gently tap their fists together.
he opens his puch again before taking another nutrient pack opening it and biting it. He can see her doing the same but with the blob that is given to the penal legions as food.
They take turns taking bites from their food, before handing it to each other.
"Live with honer." he said to her.
"Die with glory." she says to him, before he hands her the disk and walks away, he knows that the chances that he will see her again are almost non-existent, but he never expected to see that guardsman again either.
"She is a criminal." he hears one of his brothers say to him.
"That she is." he answers the other space marine.
'Then why give her the right to even touch such a thin!?" he hears his brother loudly protest.
'Because brother, in our last moments we all share the same feelings and it's in those last moments that we are truly alive."
"In our last moments, the emperor can see who we are. Enemies are forgotten and allies become brothers. In our last moments, we are human, nothing more nothing less." he answers his brother.
He knows that everyone near him is listening, but he ignores them because none of them are important.
"Then that should be in the hands of someone worthy!" his brother protests before she starts to walk toward the mutant who steps back in fear.
"Take one more step and you will have to fight." he says to his brother.
"He chose his successor. I do not know why he chose her, but that was his wish and I have no right to ignore his decision."
"So let her choose its next owner so that they can meet the emperor with their heads held high." he says to his brother who reluctantly turns around and walks back to his spot next to the others in their chapter.
][][][
She watched as the space marines walked away none of them looked back at her, despite the argument that had happened earlier.
She ignored the looks of envy and for whatever reason hate that the rest of the prisoners gave her.
"Let me see it.' the comissar says to her.
She can only watch as the woman looks at the disk and traces her fingers on the single lines that split into two.
"What does it mean?" the commissar asks her.
"In life, we all walk separate paths but in death, we all must walk the same so that we may be judged." she answers the commissar.
"Keep it safe." the commissar says to her before she hands the disk back to her.
"In the end, they were pardoned, so I guess that everyone that died here before and alongside him was able to meet the emperor as free men instead of being criminals." she hears the commissar say.
She isn't sure but she can almost swear that she can see the commissar's eyes soften and what looks like a smile form before it quickly vanishes and her eyes harden again.
She doesn't say anything as she puts the disk into her pocket, but she wonders how many of the same disks are out there and if she will ever meet anyone besides the space marine that has one.