T
su'gan staggered as
a spike of pain seared up his side, forcing him to reach out with a shaking hand. The black marble of the wall felt cool to the touch as he steadied himself. After a few moments he was able to continue. Through a haze of barely checked agony, Tsu'gan failed to notice the steaming handprint he left in his wake as he toured the Hall of Relics.
Like many of the sergeants, he had stayed on Prometheus to await news from the Pantheon. Speculation was rife as to what the chest discovered on the
Archimedes Rex
might mean. There was a thread of belief that, given the inauspicious times, it might pertain to the location where the primarch had sought solitude following the cessation of the Heresy. Tsu'gan doubted that greatly. He was a pragmatist, certainly too level-headed to indulge in such remote theories. He believed in what he could see, what he could touch. Tsu'gan knew of only one way to resolve a crisis: meet it head on with determination and resolve. With that in mind, while he awaited the Pantheon's findings, he had convened a meeting of his own. Several sergeants had been present, colluded by Iagon, impelled by Tsu'gan's shining Promethean example and the respect afforded to him by his contemporaries. They were there at his request, after all, to address a ''serious concern'' within the company. The subject of the secret assembly, conducted in one of the fortress monastery's few, and barely used, dormitories, was N'keln. Tsu'gan recalled it now, the guilt of the union merging with that he associated with Kadai's death, as he walked down the black marble corridors of the gallery.
Tsu'gan awaited them in the half-dark of the chamber, its halogen lanterns dulled, with just the ambient light to illuminate the bare room. One by one, they entered: Agatone and Ek'Bar were the first, dour and long-serving; quiet and pensive respectively. Both were Tactical squad sergeants like Tsu'gan. Then there came Vargo from one of the Assault squads, a campaign veteran. De'mas, Clovius and Typhos followed a short time after. Last of all was Naveem, who seemed the most reluctant to have been summoned. These Astartes, great Salamanders all, encompassed five Tactical squads and both Assault squads of 3rd Company. Only the sergeants of the Devastators were not present, those that had fought alongside N'keln on Stratos. Of course, Dak'ir was also absent. He had made his feelings very clear on the subject of the captain's recent ascension.
The brother-sergeants present had each removed their battle- helms - in fact Clovius and Typhos generally did not wear one - and the lustre of their eyes glowed deeply in the gloom. Tsu'gan waited until they were all settled, until the mutual greetings and respectful acknowledgements were done, before he began.
'Do not think me disloyal,' Tsu'gan said, 'for I am not.' He regarded each of the assembled sergeants intently as he panned his gaze around the room.
'Why are we here then, if not to speak of disloyalty, to renege on the vows we all made before the Chapter Master himself?' Naveem's anger was evident in his tone, but he kept his voice down all the same.
Tsu'gan raised a placatory hand, both to mollify Naveem and arrest any reprisals from Brother Iagon, who watched from behind his sergeant in the darkness.
'I seek only what is best for the company and the Chapter, brothers,' he assured them.
'If that is true, Tsu'gan, then why have us skulk in the shadows like conspirators?' asked Agatone, his hard face wrinkled with discontent. 'I came to this meeting to discuss the discord in our ranks, and the way we might mend it. All the talk I have heard prior to this gathering has been of dissension and of N'keln's unsuitability for the role of captain. Tell me now why I shouldn't just turn on my heel and go to Tu'Shan?'
Tsu'gan met his fellow sergeant's intense glare with honest contrition. 'Because you know as well as I that N'keln is not fit for this post.'
Agatone opened his mouth to respond, but clamped it shut in the face of indisputable fact.
Turning his attention back to the assembly as a whole, Tsu'gan spread his arms in a conciliatory gesture.
'N'keln is a fine warrior, one of the best amongst the Inferno Guard, but he is not Kadai and—'
'No one is,' scoffed Sergeant Clovius, shaking his head. His squat body, thick-shouldered and broad of back, made him seem as intractable as an armoured rock. The sergeant continued, 'You cannot hold a man to account by another's memory.'
'I speak only of his legacy,' Tsu'gan returned, 'and of his ability to lead us. N'keln needs a steadying hand, the support of a captain himself. He is like one component of an alloy; strong when bonded with another, but left alone—' Tsu'gan shook his head. 'He will surely break.'
Muttering from around the room intimated his audience was less than convinced. Tsu'gan merely pushed harder.
'N'keln inherits a fractured company, one requiring strength to rebuild. It is strength he does not possess. How else would you describe the folly of returning to the Hadron Belt?'
'Had we not, we would never had discovered the chest,' countered Vargo, his deep voice reluctant.
Tsu'gan faced him, his own voice an impassioned rasp.
'
A fluke: one that very nearly added to the tally of ignominious dead and indebted us to mercenaries.' He spat the last word as the memory of the Marines Malevolent loomed in his mind. To deal with such honourless curs left a bitter canker in Tsu'gan's mouth.
'Another of N'keln's failings,' Tsu'gan went on, 'allowing Vinyar and his dogs to steal weapons and armour destined for another Chapter. No better than thieves, these Astartes in name only. Yet N'keln lets them go without pursuit or so much as a harsh word.' He paused, letting his damning rhetoric sink in.
'Do not think me disloyal,' he repeated, experiencing no small measure of satisfaction from the realisation dawning on the sergeants faces. Even Naveem seemed to thaw. 'For I am not. I serve only the will of the Chapter. I always have. I am proud to be Fire-born and I will follow my brothers unto death. But what I will not do is stand idle as a company is brought into ruination. Nor will I participate in baseless missions where a reckless death is the only reward. I cannot do that.'
Agatone articulated what the rest were already thinking.
'So what would you have us do?'
Tsu'gan nodded as if in approval of the decision he had garnered here.
'Ally with me,' he said simply,
'Ally with me in going to the Chapter Master and suing for the removal of N'keln as captain.'
After a few moments, Naveem spoke up.
'This is madness. None of these acts you've mentioned are charges enough for the captain's dismissal. Tu'Shan will punish us all for this conspiracy. We'll be up before
