This Was Their New Commander

It was like standing at the foot of a snowy mountain and looking up at its peak, where a colossal, indescribable being sat, watching them.

Golden Light cleansed the soul.

Had the sun come out?

No.

That was humanity's true god.

Golden Light exploded outward, covering the entire deck.

The light pierced through the bulkheads, through the deck, through the barriers of matter, through everyone's bodies, reaching straight into the deepest parts of their souls.

All 311 Lamenters felt it at the same time.

Every Lamenter trembled simultaneously.

Then every Lamenter dropped to one knee in perfect unison.

Their knees struck the deck.

Their poses were exactly the same: one knee on the ground, heads lowered, right fists pressed against their hearts, the Heart Chapter insignias on their shoulder plates aligned at the same level.

For four thousand years, the entire Imperium had despised them, and other Chapters had avoided them like the plague. The Inquisition had purged them from the fringes time and time again. For four thousand years, they had been the unluckiest Chapter of the Blood Angels' successors. Their Gene-seed was the most contaminated, their battlefield casualty rate the highest. No one came to support them after a battle. When they were wounded, they licked their own wounds. When they died, they could not even leave their names behind, their urns crammed into niches in the walls of their ships.

But the Emperor acknowledged that they were loyal.

The Emperor loved them so much that the Emperor's Gaze had fallen upon them.

The Grey Knights stood rigidly, unable to move another inch.

The weight of those eyes looking down from directly above their souls felt almost tangible.

The Adeptus Custodes captain planted his halberd on the ground, and the corner of his mouth curled beneath his armor.