Danat Lysander always believed that all the praise he received was simply because he survived the hell of Talador.
The naked truth meant nothing to him. Preserving life itself had never been a concern to him. The idea was a complete blasphemy - one of the few things he still believed in.
By the same token, even after being captured by the Iron Warriors, he was not self-indulgent enough to seek martyrdom alongside his brothers.
Grief and pride were equally foreign emotions to him.
But now, this incident is no small matter.
It is like a chain hanging on the shoulders of those who return.
Physical injuries can still be healed and most recover quickly, but the stress is not a physical injury.
Although no one uttered the word "doomsday," one could still faintly hear it in the echoing silence of the Phalanx, feel every whisper in the faded dark red fabric on the cold stone, and witness every glance. See.
At the end of the 41st millennium, Chaos could not help but become more and more active. Even aliens began to attack cities and territories. Every battle group was exhausted, and every soldier could feel the huge sense of oppression before the coming rain.
Lysander walked down the long corridor. The lumen lights hanging in the tower had been turned off, reflecting a certain atmosphere - the interior of the place was now almost empty and already smelled musty from the foul air.
The fragile bones of the empire could no longer support the bloated and decaying body.
Even the Phalanx, which had survived the Horus Heresy, looked more and more like an old man at the end of the forty-first millennium.
The Phalanx is a huge movable interstellar fortress, which is also the current home of the Imperial Fists. It is said that the Phalanx was built more than 10,000 years ago, and the secrets of its construction have long been forgotten.
When Dorn and the Emperor first met, Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists, dedicated the Mountain to the Emperor. The Emperor later returned it to Dorn, and it has proudly served the Empire ever since.
Since then, it has circled the solar system, its orbit synchronized with the divine Terra, a ever-vigilant golden sentinel to guard the cradle of humanity in these increasingly dark times.
But when necessary, the Mountain Formation will also be an extremely powerful battleship. In the past era of great expeditions and the current era of heresy, its figure has appeared in hundreds of worlds, followed closely by the Empire. The warriors of the Fist and the wrath of the Primarch.
The Phalanx itself is enormous, the largest space vehicle known to have been built by humans, the size of a small moon or large asteroid. An interstellar fortress of this size has not been seen since the Dark Age of Technology.
In appearance, the Phalanx is a regular polyhedron, with its huge spire extending towards the stars, making it look like a huge hive, because it is so big that it can reflect light in many places like stars. It is also the only ship built by humans to approach the scale and complexity of the Eldar's Craftworld.
The shell of the Mountain Formation is covered with weapon arrays and detection arrays. Every area is covered with solid armor, and every angle is covered with more torpedo launch tubes and light spear arrays than any Imperial warship can be equipped with.
At the same time, its external foredeck can also accommodate a dozen cruisers. Upon entering the dock, you can see a huge atrium covered with ornate panels and four large, decorated corridors, which are generally accessible through the corridors. on board.
Leaving the pier, you will enter a square, which is very large, more than 100 meters high, and the domed ceiling is decorated with legionary emblems and victory badges.
There is a 30-meter-wide diamond on top of the dome, beautiful reliefs on the walls, and a mosaic of the Imperial Fists emblem on the marble floor.
At the other end is a massive staircase that leads to a kilometer-long hall filled with all kinds of loot.
Adjacent to the Hall of Honor is another corridor with an equally grand but smaller staircase and connecting corridor that contains the various damages sustained during the Beast Wars.
At the end of this small corridor is a dining hall for Space Marines and a meeting room surrounded by plain glass, with a black round table and an elaborate statue of a Space Marine in the center.
Some people say that Phalanx is essentially a hive city in space, and to a certain extent it is true.
However, ten thousand years have passed, and the current situation of the Phalanx is not optimistic. Constant vigilance operations and wars have caused inevitable losses.
Although the Imperial Fists continue to work hard to maintain the Mountain Formation, each year more powerful fortress systems fail, and the skills required to repair them have long faded from human memory.
Once, the Phalanx shone among the stars like a giant, but now its peak has long passed.
It had not left the solar system for a long, long time, and Lysander sometimes wondered whether the Phalanx would ever be able to fight again.
Perhaps its next expedition will be its last, like a dying old warrior wielding his last sword and dying of exhaustion.
Lysander did not hope he would see that day.
But this mission left him shaken.
He didn't believe it at first, but after witnessing the horrific scale of the Hive Fleet's killings at close range, he was truly shaken.
Not long ago, Lysander led two companies, as the commander of this mission, to the Far Eastern Star Territory to investigate a newly confirmed Hive Fleet - the Kraken Hive.
No one believed that since the main force of the Behemoth Hive Fleet was wiped out, the Terra Hive was still able to piece together a large main fleet, but the facts slapped those biological sages mercilessly.
Although only the outpost tentacles of the main fleet of the Hive are currently appearing in the Far Eastern Starfield, its scale has exceeded that of the average Tyranid squadron. Lysander also led the Imperial Fists in a bloody battle before finally breaking out of the siege and bringing the news to them. Return to Terra.
In order to prevent large-scale panic and chaos, the High Lords Council has kept the news of this hive fleet named "Kraken" in a highly confidential state. Subsequent investigation and defense will involve more than a dozen people from the Far Eastern Star Region. Responsible for three warbands, mainly the Raven Guard and a series of their sub-chambers.
But at present, only Lysander and his warriors are the only ones who really know how terrifying the Zerg are.
When the exhausted survivors stumble back to the armory, with their cloaks shattered and swords broken, people can get a glimpse of the brutality of the battle.
Those souls who were sent into the path of the Hive invasion and have not yet returned are lost on the other side, and the loss is almost unimaginable.
He didn't know if the empire still had the strength to deal with such a powerful enemy. Just dealing with the black legion that was ready to move in the Eye of Terror had already exhausted the empire.
Lysander approached a pair of gates. He had no idea why his Chapter Master had summoned him. For the first time in the many years since he had begun his service, Lysander found the man so unpredictable.
It was a sobering discovery, the realization that even he was suffering from the cold influence of a pessimistic future, the slow poison of hesitation - something that until then had not been obvious.
As he approached, a guard in an ornate helmet opened the door, and a pair of brass plates turned inward on the exposed stone floor.
Twenty people stood in the hall at the far end, fourteen of them veterans and advisors of the Chapter's command, wearing various armors and ancient fabrics.
Five others, like Lysander, were company officers of the Chapter.
Their helmets had been taken off, revealing their scarred faces. One of them is Tor Galadon, the commander of the special force "Sentinels of Terra" and Lysander's former enemy and current best friend.
The man carried many wounds, some of them physical and some of his soul.
The one in the middle, Vladimir Pugh, the master of the mountain formation and their chapter leader, was standing there quietly.
