For the seventh time in as many minutes one huge digit moved to place itself upon the insectoid head painted onto the right pauldron, the single finger of Brother Yijun Mah tracing the outline of the glaring mantid, while his eyes - narrowed in thought behind his skeletal visor - may have been looking into the depths of the hangar bay but, honestly, looked at nothing.

While Randuin lent his prayers to the ether, and Tyros checked his weapons in the thorough manner expected of all Astartes, the Reiver had his thoughts turned more in the direction of the Chaplain among them. To the past, to what had come before.

He had been awoken some ten-thousand years after being taken from the windswept plains of his home world, the forces of the Ruinous Powers being pushed back by the likes of Dorn, Russ and his own gene-sire, the Khan; after awakening he was clad in the pristine white ceramite of the White Scars and driven into war with the others that would come to be known as the Unnumbered Sons, his pauldron bearing the grey chevrons and his blood as pure and undiluted as it was possible for a Marines to be.

Upon the 'breaking' of the Sons he believed he was destined for the ranks of the Scars - or at the very least the all-Primaris Chapter known as the Storm Reapers - carrying within him the genetic coding and warrior spirit of Chogoris. It did not matter to him that he had neither seen the planet, its inhabitants, or even fought beside [i]true[/i] Scars before, he knew fate would not see him wrong...

...but it did.

"Mantis," he muttered inside his helmet.

Guilliman, Son of the Emperor and Lord-Protector of the Imperium, sent him to join an accursed and shameful Chapter that was below even company strength due to their stained past.

[i]The Mantis Warriors.[/i]

Little-to-nothing was known about this enigmatic and shrunken Chapter (at least not in the records he had been able to study prior to assignment), his only joy being the large number of fellow Primaris accompanying him.

Truly it appeared that they would be this Chapters salvation!

What short time he had spent with the Mantis Warriors had shown him many things, not least of all the steel-strong bond between them and the Deathwatch, the very reason that he now sat on a crate within a hangar in an out-of-the-way Watch Station manned by none other than the Ordo Xenos and their black-armoured allies.

[i]"For the Emperor...for Redemption...for the Mantis Warriors!"[/i]

He could still not even think the words without a sense of unearned shame crawling over him...and he had no idea why.


[hr]


[@Ollumhammersong][@Andreyich][@NecroKnight]


"Two Intercessors, a Reiver and a brother Chaplain," growled Teliomedes through gritted teeth, his one organic grey eye and artificial replacement both glancing over these newest sacrifices to the Watch, "at least they painted their armour the correct colour."

Brother-Captain Acacius allowed the tactless demagogue his small outburst, coming to stand before the clutch of Primaris Marines and marvelling once more at the works of the Arch Magos and his sire; having fought alongside the new breed of Astartes before - which Ultramarine had not? - he did not find them as curious or damnable as one such as Teliomedes may do, nevertheless he gestured for them to abandon what they were doing and form up before him.

"Welcome to Watch Station Nemesianus, brothers," announced the Ultramarine almost jovially, "I am Captain Acacius of the Ultramarines, and this is Chaplain Teliomedes formerly of the Imperial Fists. We welcome you as new recruits and new kinsmen, and hope that your acclimatisation shall be swift and without incident."

Footsteps, easily heard even over the movement of slack-faced servitors around them, approached and presented a third figure in the black of the Deathwatch. This newcomer was clearly of the Primaris type, at least a head if not more above the two veterans he came to stand beside, his head covered by his helmet but his Chapters pauldron showing the familiar marking of the Raven Guard but on a white background.

"I am Veteran Brother Ayuri, and you," he gave them all a moment to dress their line and such, "are now Kill-team Ayuri, until I die or it is said otherwise."

Acacius gave a curt nod to the larger Marine and spoke again, his voice soft but hiding within it an adamant core, "before you are all subjected to the training required before you may become fully-fledged brothers of the Watch, you may ask any questions that play on your minds and they shall be answered as best they can be."