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’And dark it was,’ agreed Astelan, choosing to ignore the accusation in the Chaplain’s statement ’My couided tolerance had bred weakness, and rounds of the rebels, burnt down the holes where they hid, executed their kin and those who supported theh I am not proud of what I was forced to do, and there was ave me his full support At that time, he alone could see my intent and under­stood as necessary I will not deny the fact that it was a pogroed innocent were executed without recourse to considered judgment But they were excep­tional times, the people of Tharsis had to be shown the way, they had to understand that life under the rule of the Eiven freely, it is earned with sacrifice - sacrifice of personal freedom, of labour and, when needed, of blood Tharsis burned for two hundred and fifty days, as the cleansing continued But on that last day, as I personally led my sacred bands on the attack, Tharsis’s freedo and sweat­ing hard While he had spoken, he had become more animated, as much as the bonds around his limbs and body allowed
’You were not there,’ he said to Boreas, interpreting the Chaplain’s silence as disbelief ’How can you understand our elation at the final victory, when you are so passion­less, so devoid of life? We had driven them back for month after month, until we had forced them to make a last stand at the coast of the northern seas Four thou­sand of them, that was all that remained At my back were fifty thousand warriors, with me at the fore were twenty thousand of the sacred bands There was nowhere for them to escape this time, nowhere to run, no lair to hide in They were surrounded and we showed theht well, to their credit, and not one of them attempted to surrender’
’Would it have mattered?’ Boreas asked
’Not at all,’ Astelan replied bluntly, his shrugthe chains around him rattle dully ’They knew they were conde It took less than an hour, as the shells rained down and the sacred bands charged I ht of them One hundred and seven I killed in battle, and at the end, Vazturan, greatest of ht me the last of the rebels, still alive I re, no more than twenty years old He ounded, shot in the arm, his face bloodied His scalp was shaved and he had been tattooed with the symbols of the rebellion -the raven’s head, the inverted aquila I took hiathered round in their tens of thousands,and scuffling with each other in their atteade I tossed the youth off the cliff onto the jagged rocks below and a great cheer welled up from the army Such a noise equalled the victory chants of my Chapter e conquered Muapre Prireat celebration, I can see,’ Boreas snarled, stepping out of the darkness, showing true eator-Chaplain unfolded his ar he lashed out, the back of his hand crashing across Astelan’s face The pain was momentary, but it was not supposed to hurt It was an insult, a blow one would use to chastise an aspirant The attack was filled with contes more than any words could
’I knohat you did!’ the Interrogator-Chaplain bel­lowed, his ht by Astelan’s ear ’There was an Administratum census-taker on Tharsis less than a decade before you arrived, before there was any war, before your bloodthirsty regime The records we exaht hundred ood records You listed your soldiers, the workers, the supervi­sors and their fa, and it was all noted down I saw those records before I left You were right to say a generation gave its life for you Your own scribes estimated the population to be between two hundred and two hundred and fifty million, a quarter of the people you proclaim to have saved!’
’The war had its costs, sacrifices were made; do you not understand?’ Astelan shouted back at him
’You, an oath-breaker, a traitor to your own prienocide on a massive scale’ The Chaplain’s voice had dropped to a venomous hiss
’And you can say this with a clear conscience?’ spat Astelan ’The Dark Angels have no blood on their hands?’
’Oh, I agree that battle and sacrifice result in death,’ Boreas replied with a grimace ’I understand that we live in a brutal universe, and that ast the unnumbered souls of the Imperium, a few els have purged worlds that are beyond all attempts at redemption, and we have done it with joy for we knoe do is for the secu­rity of the future Truly it is said that a moment of laxity spawns a lifetime of heresy’
’Then you understand liht that perhaps there were still those of enough e an Iels had not sunk so low as the others had taught hi to attackAstelan’s face in both hands, his mouth twisted in a feral snarl ‘Three hundred million Tharsians died after the as declared over, when you usurped power You had tasted blood, and you wantedin the fear of those you ruled over! Those who did not serve in your sacred bands lived in terror, that was how you reat Imperium, no collective effort to serve the Emperor There were two million hired killers and two hundred million terrified slaves! How could a Chapter commander have fallen so low? Or per­haps you have always been like this Perhaps blood-hungrythe Great Crusade’
’They were right, ten thousand years without the Emperor has made you weak,’ Astelan dismissed the Chaplain’s accusations and turned his head away
’Who?’ Boreas de journey, the ones who had been in your universe longer than myself I learnt much from them,’ explained Astelan
’And was Horus hen he led his Legions against the Ehter and devastation in his wake?’ said Boreas, releasing his hold and stepping away
‘You compare me to the cursed Warlare at Boreas ’You think that I wanted those deaths, that I craved the spilling of blood?’
’I think the guilt of what you have done, the sins you have committed, have driven you ment, you were never fit to coht to hide behind bloodshed and horror Did their screaade? Did the blood of three hundredwash away the stain of treachery?’
’What we fought for so hard, I could not risk losing again,’ Astelan explained, resting his head back against the slab, staring at the featureless rock of the ceiling ’I could not countenance another betrayal such as we suf­fered on Caliban I had to guard against doubt, against the rumours and whispers that eat away at men’s hearts and erode their will to rise up and claim what is theirs’
’And so you rose up and claimed as yours, is that how it transpired?’ Boreas asked
’When the as over, the celebrations continued for a long time, but as ever, the people’s euphoria passed eventually,’ Astelan said, saddened by the h he are of the weakness of normal men, he could not truly understand it ’How soon the Tharsians forgot what bound theht There werethat you could trace or prove, but a swell of discontent They started doubting the validity of keeping the sacred bands ar that because the ith the rebels was over, there was no need tothe war for Tharsis was the first step on the road to greater glories Forged in bat­tle, the sacred bands were an army fit for the Emperor The spirit of the Great Crusade still burned inside me, and here was a force that orthy to take up the man­tle that so many others had discarded’
’You wanted to erip on the worlds around Tharsis?’ snapped Boreas
’I wanted to show the galaxy what I had achieved!’ argued Astelan, sainst the slab ’I wanted to cast aside the doubts of ancient history and demonstrate to those with power that a way still existed for the Ier But Imperial Com­mander Dax, after I had revealed my aspirations to him, turned froo’
Thein his stoht of loss still haunted hirets of the past, but to be discarded again had been too reat service, and I would be lauded for a hundred lifeti to h me, he had done what he had not considered possible, and had allowed me to take the responsibility Had , but he had everything to gain Now he spoke of reducing the ar captains and colonels froain I was horrified, but helpless It was then, unbid­den, that the sacred bands showed me the way With no coed Dax’s palaces There was no one to resist them, all but a few soldiers in the whole arainst the action were eliminated Faced with such powerful opposition, the Ireed to review his decision But his cowardice got the better of hi to flee the palace’
’How convenient for you,’ the Chaplain retorted with a shake of his head He crossed his arlowered at Astelan ’The loyalty of your , the death of the Imperial commander a timely incident’
’I have no illusions that the soldiers had reat plans inthe rebel­lion, they had risked their hoht off the enemy, but I had ensured that the rewards for them matched my expectations I know that the hearts of nor­mal men are weak, they will never be like the Space Marines As well as leadership and direction, they require incentive to rise above their inherent selfishness And so they had lands, and good food Each soldier had been provided with servants to see to their needs, so that theyI did not want them distracted by petty concerns’