"Is... Is This for Us?"

300 sets of basic equipment including Mk7 Power Armour, chainswords, and bolters, a massive amount of ammunition, and 10 Phobos-pattern Land Raiders.

The items contained within were nothing more than a drop in the bucket to Huron, with the exception of the power armour and the Phobos-pattern vehicles.

He had to remember that the 20 special operations divisions he formed were all equipped with bolters for every single man, and the hive city of Palatus was already capable of producing chainswords, bolters, and bolts independently.

These things were no longer worthy of taking up his military factory quotas.

Yet to Forlorn, these items could be described as a pie falling from the sky, dizzying him to the point of vertigo.

"Is... Is this really a gift for us?" Forlorn stammered slightly as he spoke.

There was no help for it; for decades, he had been racking his brains every day to seek supplies, having even begged their estranged parent Chapter and other successor Chapters.

Yet due to the Inquisition's characteristic pettiness, the Ordo Malleus still targeted them at every turn, leaving the support they could secure pitifully scarce.

The First Captain standing beside Forlorn wondered somewhat strangely what was written on the manifest to make the Chapter Master stammer.

He glanced sideways at the contents of the manifest, and was then likewise stun-locked in place.

"Is... Is this true?" The First Captain looked at the Chapter Master somewhat hesitantly, hoping to get an affirmative answer.

Forlorn instead looked toward Astral Claws Second Captain Hans, and Hans nodded, "We brought all the gifts. If Chapter Master Forlorn feels there is no problem, we can transport them right now."

"Uh... Ah... Thank you."

Forlorn felt a bit embarrassed for a moment; by rights, they should have entertained the Battle-Brothers of the Astral Claws first.

Perhaps it was because they saw through my anxiety.

Forlorn felt somewhat ashamed.

Hans contacted the crew members aboard the warship, and soon, several Avernus Barges began transporting back and forth, delivering the gifts onto the Storm Daughter.

Looking at the sets of smooth, complete, uniformly styled, freshly manufactured unpainted Mk7 Power Armour, Forlorn and all the Lamenters present stared without blinking, fearing that the armour would vanish if they blinked even once.

Yet as 10 Land Raiders rolled out of the Avernus Barge, the Lamenters' gazes shifted back toward them.

As heavy assault vehicles, the value of a Land Raider was actually not lower than a Terminator at all, and perhaps even higher.

This point could be seen from the regulations of the Codex Astartes.

Much like Terminators, Land Raiders were theoretically only to be used by first-company veterans.

Moreover, unlike Terminators who could be worn by everyone, the Codex also stipulated that a 10-man squad could only use a single Land Raider.

Therefore, average Chapters could only field ten simultaneously, though not a few Chapters did not even possess ten.

A founding Chapter of old-softies like the Salamanders, in order to bypass this rule, merely increased the first company to 12 squads so they could field 12 Land Raiders.

Looking at those ten uniformly styled Phobos-pattern Land Raiders without the slightest trace of use, seeming as though they had just come off the production line, Forlorn swallowed hard without a shred of Chapter Master decorum.

Though the Phobos-pattern was merely a basic or rather standard model, its value was hardly less than an entire Terminator company—and one had to remember the Lamenters Chapter only possessed a total of 5, of which only 2 were operational, while the remaining 3 could only be left to the mercy of fate.

Forlorn touched the armour of a Land Raider, a cool, heavy sense of reassurance transferring from his fingertips into his mind.

He took a deep breath, "I thank Chapter Master Huron for the gift; the Lamenters Chapter will never forget this kindness. Whenever the Astral Claws have need, the Lamenters will certainly fight with all our might."

He had not forgotten that those petty-minded folks in the Ordo Malleus were still watching them, and the Astral Claws were practically acting as their shield.

"There is no need to mind it so, Chapter Master Forlorn." Hans shook his head, "These equipments are nothing to us. Rather than letting them gather dust in the warehouse, it is better to give them to those who need them more."

"Chapter Master Huron is the Emperor's chosen man; he does not wish to see the Emperor's warriors suffer inglorious losses due to a lack of guns and ammunition."

Forlorn remained silent.

He recalled the Slaughterhouse III campaign during the Corinthian Crusade, when they had no reinforcements and attempted to evacuate the planet's populace onto starships and take them away while surrounded by Orks.

Yet due to limited transport capacity, time was dragged out again and again, with quite a few among the Lamenters falling to the Black Rage; casualties of over 200 men were basically sustained right here.

The fleet in the orbit above was also gradually destroyed, leaving only the Storm Daughter still holding out.

In order not to weigh them down, the remaining millions of civilians chose to detonate millions of tons of explosives, perishing together with the Orks and buying them time to evacuate.

In the end, the remaining few dozen Lamenters departed Slaughterhouse III with over 300,000 civilians and the Storm Daughter.

For those we cherish, we die in glory.

This was the warcry of the Lamenters Chapter, and also their motto.

Now Forlorn comprehended the mindset of those who had marched to their deaths: "We shall engrave it in our hearts."

Hans smiled and shook his head, "Once you go to Badab later, you will know this truly is nothing."

He began to bring up official business: "Coming this time, we hope to reach an agreement with your esteemed Chapter to form a raider fleet together, capture pirate starships, and expand our strength."

"We agree," Forlorn consented directly, "As long as your esteemed Chapter can provide basic supplies, we are willing to dispatch 2 companies, a strike cruiser, and 2 frigates to battle."

Although Forlorn did not state it explicitly, Hans knew at once that this was an implicit forfeiture of the distribution rights for spoils of war, requiring only basic supplies to suffice.

Yet this differed from the mission Chapter Master Huron had given him; if the Chapter Master truly learned that he had left the Lamenters out, the Chapter Master would likely fight him to the death.

Therefore Hans made up his mind that he must pull the Lamenters into the post-battle distribution; he had no desire to taste the Chapter Master's iron fist.

Compared to the cheerful atmosphere of the Lamenters, the meeting between the Astral Claws and the Mantis Warriors was somewhat gloomy.

Although the Lamenters appeared poor enough, the Mantis Warriors were actually even poorer than them.

When Chapter Master Yarrick Sarissa welcomed Astral Claws Second Captain Carl, the mismatched power armour he wore still bore.

Mk7 chest armour, Mk6 leg armour, and a Mk4 helmet.

Not only that, these components were all covered in battle scars, making it clear at a glance that they had been tempered through the baptism of endless warfare.

Sarissa felt somewhat ashamed when he claimed these were the Chapter's heirloom relics representing the Chapter's glory.

Although what he said was true, the patchwork armour on his body had indeed endured the passage of a millennium, followed several generations of Chapter predecessors into battle, and witnessed a thousand years of the Chapter's glory.

Yet at the root of it all, it was because the Chapter had grown so impoverished that they possessed no new power armour whatsoever.