15. Hunting the Eagle (II)

Alpha Primus knew that he had probably lived for more than a thousand years.

This conclusion came from his own conjecture. After all, Cawl had never told him his exact age, but Alpha Primus was observant.

Although he spent most of his time asleep within stasis fields or cold nutrient vats, he had still noticed certain details about Cawl—the changes in his red robes, the further aging of his face, and the additional pairs of appendages growing from his back.

Then there was the immense laboratory deep within Sotha's mountains. At first, it had not looked as it did later. Many parts of it had been rather primitive, and Cawl had merely placed some of his experimental equipment there.

The change had come suddenly. Alpha Primus had only gone to sleep a few more times, and when he awoke, he found the place utterly transformed.

He had no real sense of how much time had passed in reality, yet he still believed that age was a very important matter. For no other reason than that it belonged within the vast and practical framework of "how a person should view themselves."

So yes, he was probably more than a thousand years old, but he was equally at a loss before the burning, shattering, ever-trembling hell before him. He was almost at a complete loss as to what to do.

Once he realized this, Alpha Primus found that his heart was utterly calm. There was no anger, none of the complicated feelings Cawl's books described as arising when the "superhuman superiority of the Astartes" was punctured. He remained calm, his mind clear.

He understood better than anyone present what he needed to do.

Alpha Primus rose from his temporary shelter—a not particularly large rock—then leapt down and began to move.

The world