A distress signal reached Evan.
Shumassaya was a world capable of mass-producing lasguns, half industrial and half administrative. Its hive cities were magnificent, its factories innumerable. Just ten years ago, the Department of the Interior had commended it for exceeding its production quotas during the period "thirty years ago" when the Great Rift opened.
"Huh? They're under attack by strangely behaved Orks? Since when have Orks ever behaved normally?"
Brothers, we could catch up later. Work had arrived. Time to get the Imperialis Militia some flashlights-lasguns.
Tell them to hold on! The Crimson Tide Warband... Chapter, dirt poor but loyal to a fault, had answered their request.
"Leon, keep your company in line. They're the Fourteenth Company now. Get ready for the next test. Go chop up some Orks for fun."
Fourteenth Company: the Thirteenth Company's reserve, consisting of Blackshield warriors awaiting assessment.
A mighty fleet charged proudly into the Warp. Four Battle Barges, three Strike Cruisers, and their escorts carried more than eight hundred Space Marines toward the battlefield.
On the journey, the senior officers held a heated tactical discussion in the command chamber. Leon believed the enemy could not quickly conquer a weapons-manufacturing world. The locals had enough weapons and funds to resist. The Chapter should swiftly crush the enemy's space forces, then fight with the advantage of orbital bombardment from their warships.
Chapter Master Maturio, however, insisted that they should deploy Drop Pods immediately upon reaching the world, sending their warriors to the humans' side before conducting any other investigations.
Rogier believed his Wolf Cubs and the Tenth Company should scout ahead first. The locals' intelligence capabilities could not be trusted. The Chapter had to prioritize establishing its own battlefield intelligence network.
After all that discussion, they agreed on only one thing.
Two hundred Blackshields would form