"Chapter Master Maturio, would you like us to lend you a warship to serve as your temporary flagship? Once the Mother of Tears is repaired, you can switch back."
Maturio was astonished by the offer. He wondered why this Chapter treated them so well. The last person to show them such consideration had been Huron, leader of the Red Corsairs.
"Chapter Master Evan, that seems like asking too much of you..."
"No, no, there is a price." Maturio breathed a long sigh of relief at that. An ordinary transaction was fine. If they owed someone a great debt of gratitude, they would repay it even if they had to walk through fire.
The Lamenters were something of a softhearted Chapter, and they took debts of gratitude very seriously. When a combined Ultramarines and White Scars force had rescued their battered survivors, for instance, they had later answered the Ultramarines' call by sending three hundred warriors on a crusade-almost every warrior they had.
"After all, you'll be aboard our ship. Our two Chapters will operate and fight together for now. I need you to cooperate with my operations and protect our warships. I believe that, together, our two Chapters will be better off than either Chapter wandering the galaxy alone."
Maturio was deeply moved. Over the years, countless Chapters had refused to operate alongside them. Only a handful were willing to fight at their side.
Although concentrating two Chapters in one place was an enormous waste of fighting strength, their combined numbers did not even amount to four companies. The Lamenters had no objection on that account.
After the Huron incident, however, they were extremely reluctant to enter an Astartes alliance. Evan held a relic against his own head and swore before the statues of the Emperor and the Primarch that