The Lamenters Chapter

While Huron made friends with his fists to vent his gloom, two visiting fleets were sailing through the Warp.

Perhaps due to the Emperor's blessing, or perhaps because the God-Chosen Librarian aboard frightened the Warp Daemons, this Warp voyage was unusually smooth.

The daemon incursions that usually occurred frequently did not happen even once, and common Warp anomalies such as eerie weeping, unusual bloodstains, and unknown movements were also absent.

The ordinary crewmen were organized to pray using the contents of the Gospel of Humanity, and no mental breakdowns or sudden panics occurred.

Under these smooth conditions, the fleet visiting the Lamenters in the Sagan Sector arrived at its destination after a subjective time of about one month.

Sagan Sector, Stormdaughter Battle Barge.

This battle barge was covered in battle scars and crude patch jobs, with some repaired areas not even made of the barest plasteel, but of ferricrete.

Although ferricrete was one of the manufacturing materials for warships, it was generally used for internal structures because its upper strength limit was not high enough, and its resistance to complex environments was poor; exposed to a space environment, its service life would drop drastically.

The marks on the surface of the battle barge were new and old, obviously having undergone prolonged combat and successfully surviving each time.

Just like the Lamenters Chapter itself.

Malakim Forlorn sat in the fleet command room, waiting for the arrival of the friendly forces.

"Chapter Master, a warship is translating out of the Mandeville Point."

"Identify the signal, maintain readiness."

"It is the fleet of the Astral Claws."

"They've come so quickly?" Forlorn was somewhat surprised.

He remembered that the last time Patrick contacted the Astral Claws, it seemed to be only a week ago? The Astral Claws' fleet had arrived so fast?

One had to know that the Sagan Sector and the Badab Sector were separated by hundreds of light-years; at the speed of Warp travel, it generally took four to five months or even the better part of a year to arrive.

Had they actually reached it in a mere week this time?

Could the Astral Claws not have dispatched the fleet first before contacting them?

This thought flashed across Forlorn's mind and vanished.

As an inheritor upholding the honor of the Angel, Forlorn also upheld the virtues of the Angel, unwilling to ponder friendly forces from such a dark perspective.

"Inform the whole ship, prepare to receive them." Forlorn stood up and donned the Chapter's only remaining set of intact ceremonial armour.

Some Chapters might believe that power armour full of battle scars was a symbol of honor, but the Lamenters clearly did not think so; they felt that wearing damaged power armour to greet friendly forces was a sign of disrespect.

Well, it was probably also because the Lamenters really did not have many intact sets of power armour left.

As the saying went, the more a person lacked something, the more they emphasized it, and even Astartes brothers could not escape this vulgarity.

The Astral Claws' visiting fleet gradually approached Stormdaughter, after which the two maintained relative stability, and the Astartes of the Astral Claws boarded the Avernus Barge to head for Stormdaughter, meeting with the Lamenters Chapter.

Due to the circumstances of their Cursed Founding, and the fact that they fell out with the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus again in 681 due to the "Heart of Profanity" incident, the Lamenters Chapter naturally did not have the luxury of a homeworld.

Therefore, Forlorn directly used Stormdaughter as a reception venue, because this was already the most presentable thing the Lamenters had, aside from the Mother of Tears battle barge which doubled as the Chapter Monastery.

While preparing to welcome the Astral Claws, Forlorn and all the Lamenters looked at the strike cruiser and Gladius-class frigate parked nearby, a trace of envy flashing in their eyes.

Unified paintwork, complete armor, without any repair marks, as if newly manufactured, one could tell at a glance they were the finest among warships!

The system shipyard's standard for "repairing warships" was to reach a pristine ninety-nine-percent-new condition, so five shipyards would take nearly a year to repair a single frigate.

Huron only realized something was amiss after receiving the report from the shipyard maintenance personnel, and subsequently divided the shipyards equally among all warships.

The three brand-new warships that looked like the finest quality in Forlorn's eyes were repaired to only around 80% at most under the system's standards, because the internal damaged structures, sealed zones, and various ghosts and monsters hidden within them had not been properly dealt with.

Soon, the Astartes of the Astral Claws arrived on the bridge, and the leading Captain Hans saluted Forlorn in greeting: "Greetings to you, Chapter Master Forlorn. I am 2nd Company Captain Hans, and I bring greetings to you on behalf of Chapter Master Huron."

Forlorn returned the salute: "Greetings to you, Captain Hans, and please also convey my regards to Chapter Master Huron."

Hans truly was a 2nd Company Captain, and as for which Grand Company it belonged to, there was no need to go into such detail. Otherwise, it wouldn't be good if the Lamenters couldn't accept it for a moment.

After exchanging greetings, Hans handed the gift list to Forlorn: "Chapter Master Forlorn, Chapter Master Huron knows that your recent circumstances have been difficult, so he let us bring a small gift for you."

The Lamenters were indeed wretched, and wretched not only after the Badab War, but also before it.

According to what Huron said in his past life, in 681, in order to destroy the space hulk "Heart of Profanity" and save nearby imperial worlds, they sacrificed over 300 battle-brothers and 4 strike cruisers all at once, which could be called a crippling blow to their vitality.

As a result, not only did they fail to receive honor and rewards, but they were also accused by the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus, who came to investigate later, of handling matters poorly. The Lamenters naturally could not endure such an accusation and directly expelled the Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, with both sides parting on bad terms.

Let alone rewards, due to the Ordo Malleus's meddling, even the barest supplies had been intermittent.

As a result, not long after, in 698, to repay the past kindness of the Ultramarines, they once again dispatched 3 companies and a fleet to participate in the Corinthian Crusade. Consequently, they lost over 200 more battle-brothers, and the fleet was left with only the battle-scarred Stormdaughter barely escaping with its life.

In less than twenty short years, the Lamenters had lost nearly 600 battle-brothers and 4 or more strike cruisers, and their foundation was almost emptied out.

Now, the entire Lamenters added together numbered only a little over four hundred battle-brothers.

To recover to this scale, the Lamenters Chapter could be said to have smashed pots and sold iron; the entire Chapter was so poor that even Terminator armour was down to single digits.

Let alone a Terminator company, they could barely scrape together a Terminator squad.

Forlorn took the gift list while expressing his gratitude: "Thank you for Chapter Master Huron's kind thoughts."

Although indifferent on the surface, Forlorn was actually somewhat expectant about what gift Huron would send.

It was best if it were precious, so that even if the Lamenters couldn't use it, they could trade it for resources.

Although this thought violated the virtues of the Angel, Forlorn was truly terrified of poverty, and at a time like this he could no longer care about such things.

He glanced over the list, and his whole person froze in place.