"But... but the Alpha Legion are unquestionable traitors. That is a fact acknowledged by the entire Imperium."
"If we are to cooperate with the Alpha Legion, we will face unimaginable resistance from every angle."
"Not only will the previously neutral Imperial Fists and the Custodes immediately come out in opposition, even the combat forces of our own Ecclesiarchy will fall into turmoil."
The sister standing before the Ecclesiarch suppressed her revulsion with all her strength, lest she do anything improper in front of Elfreda.
In truth, she had already put it very politely. What she truly meant was this—if Elfreda intended to rely on the Alpha Legion to resist the Alliance of Light, then even the Sisters of Battle might immediately turn against her.
Qile and the others were heretics, after all. Their faiths differed, and so did their ideals.
But the Alpha Legion were traitors through and through, vile beings nailed firmly to the pillar of shame.
Even if the Ecclesiarch now claimed that the Alpha Legion's bizarre conduct during the Horus Heresy had fundamentally been an attempt by the Twentieth Legion to remain loyal by indirect means, would anyone believe it?
Unless the Emperor personally spoke and told everyone on Terra that everything the Alpha Legion had done was a necessary sacrifice to plant agents within the rebel ranks.
Otherwise, even the Ecclesiarch could not make others accept that fact, much less rewrite history and call white black.
Elfreda stared into the sister's eyes. She had already seen through exactly what the other woman feared.
"I will arrange everything. The Alpha Legion that appear on Terra will assume new identities and emerge in another form."
"The God-Emperor will bless these Astartes. No one will know that they are the Twentieth Legion recorded in history as having grievously betrayed