"Why have all my squadmates gone down?"
Chelast stood before the spacious Observation Window aboard the Pride of the Emperor, gazing through the transparent glass at the planet below.
He watched drop pods fall like raindrops from the warship's belly, descending toward the surface in wave after wave.
They carried his comrades, warriors of the Emperor's Children Legion, sent to Olympia's surface to carry out a so-called "cleanup mission."
Lucius turned toward Tarvitz and Chelast, who had been ordered to remain on standby aboard the Pride of the Emperor with him. "Looks like this mission and its victory are destined to pass me by. What a shame—I was hoping to cut off a few traitors' heads on the battlefield and stretch my limbs."
Lucius wore his ornately decorated power armour, lounging in a comfortable High-Backed Chair with his legs crossed.
He held a goblet of deep red Wine, the liquid gently swirling inside the Crystal Goblet and gleaming like a gemstone in the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling window.
Through the enormous window before him, he watched the fighting on Olympia.
Fortresses burned on the surface, Armoured Vehicles moved through the ruins, and aircraft circled in the sky.
But to him, this battle was like a banquet he had arrived at too late.
By the time he arrived, the feast was almost over, with nothing but cold leftovers waiting for him.
"A feast of slaughtered traitors isn't something we can hold every day, Brother Lucius," Tarvitz said mildly, standing before the door with his arms folded and looking ahead.
"That's precisely why I find it such a shame, Brother Tarvitz." Lucius took a sip of wine, leaving a faint trace of the deep red liquid on his lips.
"I wish we could hold a feast like this every day—cut off