Aboard the Malicious Claw, bridge.
Nerat Kirine, Chapter Master of the 18th Chapter of the Raven Guard, the Ashen Claws, stared furiously at the holographic image of Gate Forty-Two's iron fortress.
"What else did Corax say?"
"Nothing more. When the Consul Calvus relayed the order, he only told me that four thousand warriors of the Shadows of Orders' Tenth Chapter would provide support, and that I was to coordinate directly with their commander."
"Kirine, Corax didn't even bother to tell us himself. What more could you expect?" The Terran Captain, Irogbuan, said with a sneer.
"Before he returned, the Emperor placed us under Horus's command. After he came back, he kept saying Horus was too cruel, that we were his butchers." Another Terran Captain shrugged.
"He's never favored us. Has anyone here even seen him?"
"It's more than disfavor. He's using us as cannon fodder. Not a single Deliverance-born was sent with us."
"He's purging us."
"..."
The Terrans voiced their discontent, their suppressed anger and feelings of abandonment pouring out.
"Enough!" Nerat shouted.
The Terran commanders' complaints gradually subsided.
After the exile of former Legion Master Arkhas Fal, Balsar Kurthuri, favored by Corax and appointed Chief Librarian, had grown distant from them.
The Terrans had rallied around Nerat, the highest-ranking among them, and his words now quelled their anger.
"Complaining is pointless. Corax won't change his decision," Nerat said calmly.
"What matters now is how we complete the mission and take Gate Forty-Two."
He opened a comm channel. "Establish contact with the Tenth Chapter Master."
"Lord Kirine, the Shadows of Order has already sent a communication request. It's from Lord Ramsey, the Tenth Chapter Master himself."
Nerat was taken aback. "Patch it through immediately!"
"Nerat."
Hearing Ramsey's voice, Nerat's memory went back nearly one hundred and thirty years, to the Forge World of Xana during the Second Rangdan War.
When the Black Emperor had saved him at Forge 250, he had been a Shadow Captain. Ramsey had been but a Librarian.
Now, though he was Chapter Master of the 18th, he had no hope of becoming a Legate.
Ramsey had become a Chapter Lord, commanding the Shadows of Order's largest Chapter, numbering over thirty thousand, after absorbing the purged Legion.
His forces exceeded those of any Legate like Kaneus, approaching one-third of the "Raven Guard's" entire strength.
'But this time, I command almost the entire Legion's Terrans, barring a few hundred like Alastor Rushal.'
'Thirteen thousand eight hundred, three times Ramsey's number.
'The Warmaster's authority has limited my Lord's aid. This time, I must stand on my own.'
Nerat gathered his thoughts. "Ramsey, I'm honored to fight alongside you."
"The Warmaster awaits news of our victory. We should plan our assault immediately."
"I agree." Ramsey's voice was resonant in Nerat's ears.
"I will lead the Assassin Elites to assault the fortress," Nerat said.
Since the 19th Legion's founding, even before their gene-father Corax's return, a genetic flaw had plagued them.
Under extreme stress, they would enter a state of battle-madness, driving them to fight with brutal, desperate ferocity, heedless of their own lives.
The Terrans called this flaw the Ash Blindness; the Deliverance-born called it the Dark Night.
The veterans who had abandoned their camouflage and bared their black eyes were formed into Assassin Elites, tasked with the most dangerous, suicide missions, including frontal assaults.
Nerat had learned, through limited communication with Kaneus, that Corax and Guilliman had conducted several simulation battles.
Guilliman had recognized the Assassin Elites' value, first adopting them into the Ultramarines, and the practice had spread to other Legions.
"How many Assassin Elites do you have?"
"Four hundred and eighty-one," Nerat said without hesitation.
Under Horus's command, the Terrans had a far higher proportion of Assassin Elites than the Deliverance-born.
He wouldn't have revealed this to any other Legion, including the Luna Wolves but Ramsey was a son of the Black Emperor, a Lord appointed by Him.
"The fortress is well-defended. Your men won't be able to break through," Ramsey stated bluntly.
"I'll also deploy three thousand Raven Guard," Nerat said, revealing his entire plan.
"They're not like your Assassin Elites, trained for frontal assault," Ramsey said again.
"I will deploy five hundred and ninety-four Terminators. Five hundred and twenty-eight are Cataphractii-pattern; the rest are Tartaros and Saturnine-pattern prototypes," Ramsey said.
Though the Warmaster had limited the Shadows of Order to four thousand warriors in support of the Raven Guard, the Black Emperor had commanded him to deploy the Chapter's elite.
'Five hundred and twenty-eight Cataphractii-pattern Terminators.' Nerat processed the number.
The Cataphractii-pattern and Mark IV power armor were new patterns, prioritized for the Luna Wolves.
Corax's strained relationship with the Warmaster meant their supplies this year were barely a tenth of what they had been.
The Forge World of Kiavahr, though under the Legion's control, had not yet received the STCs for the Cataphractii and Mark IV patterns.
To Nerat's knowledge, the entire 19th Legion had received fewer than a hundred Cataphractii suits, and fewer than a thousand Mark IV suits.
As the disfavored Terrans, they had received even fewer from Kaneus.
Nerat and his captains wore Cataphractii, but their guard had only about thirty suits of the new Mark IV power armor.
Irogbuan had once joked, in anger, that they should raid the Legion's and the Luna Wolves' armories.
'The Shadows of Order has far better equipment than us.'
'Corax is unfit to lead us.'
'If I could lead the Terrans under my Lord, I'm certain our supplies would be more fairly distributed.' Nerat thought.
He recalled the Black Emperor's words in the land of black mist.
'My Lord said He would help us.'
'I doubted Him when I heard only four thousand. It was blasphemy.' Nerat silently repented.
He felt a weight lift. Assassin Elites might be more efficient killers, but they were no match for Terminators in frontal assault.
"I will send my best one hundred Assassin Elites to assist."
After Nerat ended the call, the Terrans who had been listening in were jubilant.
"The Shadows of Order will take on the siege, so we can fight in our preferred manner," Irogbuan said.
"Exactly," Nerat nodded. He could now deploy more Assassin Elites as a blade against other key objectives of the Gate Forty-Two, drastically reducing Terran casualties.
....
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