Chaplain Cassius quietly entered the Chapel of Sanctity. The figure kneeling in the centre of the stone-flags, dimly lit by flickering candles, seemed not to notice him.

"Sergeant Remas," said Cassius, his voice stern, but not without sympathy. The sergeant looked up and then slowly rose to his feet. He was shorter than the Chaplain, but more solidly built. He wore a black tunic, its cuffs and hems decorated with a fine golden thread. There was a golden scythe embroidered on his left arm, the chapter badge of the Scythes of the Emperor.

Cassius motioned him to a seat at the side of the chapel: noticing that the sergeant limped heavily as he moved across the stone floor.


"Tell me what happened," said Cassius.

For a moment Remas hung his head. As he looked up, light glinted from the three silver studs embedded in his forehead, each inscribed with the figure of a horseman. The shadow of a deep, ragged scar crossed his left cheek. Remas's eyes were sad, but they held the Chaplain's gaze.

As he spoke, the sergeant's voice remained steady, almost completely motionless, but occasionally a nervous shudder shook his right arm.

"There was no warning when the other ship appeared, nothing showed on our surveyors until we were close enough to pick it up visually. It was a strange shape, like a great beast from the deep, a huge spiral armour on its back. It would not respond to our signals and kept moving towards the core planets of the system. We were having problems communicating with our fortress-monastery, so I took the decision to board.

"As soon as the boarding torpedo struck, we dispersed. The inside of the ship was like nothing I had ever seen before. Tubes of dark fluid ran along the walls, bloated creatures like maggots hung from the ceiling and the tunnels twisted like intestines. There was a constant, low pulsing sound and a stench like rotting flesh.

"We had just reached a wider chamber when they struck. There were three of them, each twice as tall as a man. They had bony plates on their back and, through their ribs. I could see ugly, throbbing organs. They had four arms, two with claws large enough to crush a man's head, and their spines ended in huge stingers that dripped black poison.

"Two of them had claws like swords that tore through power armour with ease. I saw one split Harvan in two, carving through his armour as though there was nothing there. The third had a long tube of gristle growing from its arms that groaned and made a noise like tearing flesh as it fired."

Remas paused for a moment. His eyes turned to the shredded banner standing in the corner of the chapel. It was checked and bore the image of a golden horseman. Cassius had been that when the Ultramarines found Remas's drifting ship, the unconscious sergeant was clutching the banner so tightly they had to wait until he woke before he would release it.

"I hope never to see that weapon used again. With one shot it killed three of my men, burning through their armour and spraying them with vile mucus. They died in agony. It was as though a plague rotted their flesh, but it took seconds, not days, to kill them."

"Their memory will live on," promised Cassius. He indicated that Remas should continue.

"We killed a dozen of these creatures, may be more, and left their ship crippled. We could find no consoles, no plasma drives, nothing to show how it was controlled, only things like swollen glands and organs that seemed to be part of the ship's structure. We destroyed everything we could and planted demolition charges powerful enough to rupture it from stem to stem. When we pulled away, only myself and Brother Tobias were left alive."

Remas fell silent, but continued to stare intently into Cassius's eyes as though he was looking for something: forgiveness perhaps. Or maybe he hoped that Cassius could deny what had happened. But Cassius had seen the last communications from Scythes' fortress. He had seen the plains burning under a huge pall of smoke as the aliens approached the walls. He had heard the terror in the final message from the Scythes' Astropaths, "The Tyranids are coming!" He knew there was no hope he could give Remas, except a chance for redemption in the wars that were inevitably coming. At last Remas looked down, but when he spoke there was a new firmness to his voice. "The Chapter is not lost. While any of us survive. The Scythes of the Emperor will serve with honour to the last man."

"Indeed they shall," nodded Cassius. "But first I need you to help me."

"Of course, Chaplain," nodded Remas. "Tell me what I must do."

"I want to know about the Tyranids: how they fight, how they react to threats and how we may yet defeat them," said Cassius. "Tell me everything."