The Space Marines who had stayed by Lox's side the longest were undoubtedly the veterans who had escaped alive from beneath Isstvan V, and among them, the one closest to Lox was Nykona Sharrowkyn.
The Iron Hands veterans led by Iron Father Wayland remained steeped in the shadow of their primarch's death. Lox knew well that they followed him only because it allowed them to strike the traitors more effectively, while awaiting the day they could avenge their primarch.
Moreover, these Iron Hands never valued their lives in battle. They fought their enemies with the attitude of taking them down with them. Perhaps, to them, death was the better ending.
As for Tassa, the Salamanders Apothecary, he too followed Lox in order to strike the traitors. But he possessed an additional love for the people of the Imperium. Thanks to Lox's indirect help, tens or even hundreds of billions of humans had survived the traitors' slaughter, and he respected Lox for it.
Nykona Sharrowkyn was somewhat different from them. Lox could sense that, in the Son of the Raven's eyes, they were both comrades and friends. Corax's son longed for freedom and had not burdened himself with too much.
Thus, after extricating himself from the tedious affairs of Macragge and returning to Sotha, Lox began considering what he should give his close friend.
"For a warrior, the finest gifts are blades and weapons. Fortunately, those Necron technological artifacts seized on Sotha have finally come in handy. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have known what to do."
Lox stroked his chin, where hard stubble had already begun to grow. He headed toward the Red Alert's warehouse and ordered the Cogitator to bring out the gifts custom-made for Barabas Dantioch.
When the silvery-white metal doors opened, a waist-high platform slowly rose from underground.