The Salamanders Chapter remained in the Akros Sector until the White Scars sent replacements to take over for them. Only then did Tu'Shan summon the fastest vessel among the many ships scattered throughout the sector.
The Children of the Fire Dragon's duties had been taken over by the descendants of the Chogoris Eagle. They all departed the Akros Sector and headed straight for the coordinates provided by that Thunder Warrior company commander.
The mortal crew operated the ship.
For the first time in ten thousand years, the Salamanders Chapter's Dreadnoughts were awakened outside of combat.
The Chapter's warriors knelt before the statue of Vulkan, Lord of the Fire Dragons, on the command deck, Tu'Shan among them.
The Children of the Fire Dragon remained silent. The Chapter Master did not speak, and everyone had different thoughts.
Tu'Shan, meanwhile, questioned whether he had upheld the teachings their Primarch had left to the Chapter's predecessors in ancient times, whether he had practiced the Primarch's principles.
Then Tu'Shan answered himself. He believed he had still upheld those teachings and practiced those principles. Though some things might not have been entirely satisfactory, the image of their Primarch in myth and the will that could be interpreted from it had both been carried out by the Salamanders.
Then Tu'Shan examined whether he was worthy of being Chapter Master.
Like the Space Wolves, the Salamanders had never fully followed the Codex, and their refusal to do so was even more thorough than that of the Space Wolves.
The Space Wolves had at least once split off a successor Chapter that had inexplicably been annihilated not long afterward, while the Salamanders had not split off a Chapter at all when the Codex was promulgated.
It was not out of any doubt or dissatisfaction with Guilliman, but because after