Proof of Honor (I)

Returning to the past, to one hundred and fifty years ago, to the night Lonatister had just entered the Third Legion.

At the time, he had been no more than a boy of ten or so, taken far from his parents and carried skyward amid constant jolting. He was placed in a room of his own, where there was almost everything he could need—except companions.

That night, alone and unable to sleep, what filled his mind was not anticipation, but fear—What if I don't qualify? What if they don't want me?

The boy had not yet understood what it meant to be taken aside alone by Saul Tarvitz. Filled with worry, he only barely fell asleep before dawn—and the moment he did, he had a nightmare.

He dreamed he was falling from an altitude of ten thousand meters. Gale-force winds tore at his face. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

Then back to a hundred years ago, to the moment he first fought at his primarch's side.

That planet lay three star systems east of Chemos, and its name had now been erased. Yet before all traces of it became taboo and dust, it had once been a prosperous world.

Like every planet colonized by the Imperium, during its first few centuries it produced everything: food, meat, fish, crops, and more.

Then, its soil was exhausted by overdevelopment, and it became a mining world. Every mineral resource of value upon it was depleted over the following centuries. In the end, it became a classic Hive City world.

The governor's family that ruled the place had possessed some conscience. Their ancestors had not spent all the wealth accumulated over generations on indulgence. Instead, when the world was on the verge of becoming a hive world, they took out