The First Legion Has No Secrets

The smoke of the Battle of Karmas had yet to fully disperse across the stars when the fleet, bearing victory and a heavy price, returned to the fortress known as the Rock.

This enormous mobile stronghold was both the home of the Dark Angels and a witness to their ten thousand years of history, as well as a repository for their secrets.

Its return marked the reassembly of the First Legion's strength, and also meant that more complicated internal affairs now lay before Lion El'Jonson.

In the fortress's core district, the Lion King's private council chamber was solemn and grave.

Unlike the clamor of the Karmas battlefield, the silence here carried the weight of ten thousand years.

Lion El'Jonson sat upon a throne carved from Calibanite obsidian, having just concluded a lengthy meeting with the core members of the Inner Circle.

Grand Master Azrael, Chief Librarian Ezekiel, Deathwing Grand Master Belial, Ravenwing Grand Master Sammael, and Chapter Chaplain Azmodai, whose expression remained grim, had just reported to him in detail on the Legion's reorganization since his return, the assembly of its successor Chapters, and the Rock's own operational condition.

The report had been rigorous and meticulous, yet it was also filled with the Dark Angels' characteristic layers upon layers of secrecy.

Just as Chen Xi had observed, within the First Legion, "no secrets" was precisely the greatest facade.

Below the Inner Circle lay numerous secret sub-societies, each holding different fragments of the Legion's history, inheritance, and even shame.

Resource allocation, recruitment, technical maintenance, intelligence networks...

Behind these vast systems lay a tangled division of power and responsibility, with many key links open only to Inner Circle members of specific ranks.

Only the Lion King himself, as the Primarch and absolute core of the Legion, theoretically held the final key to