"Tax collection is an art."
The Lamenters' Chapter Master said this as he looked at Charp, the "Revenue Inquisition" official before him.
Yes, the Lamenters had regained their freedom, and even received a decent replenishment of equipment.
The story of how they regained their freedom began some time earlier, when an utterly absurd situation arose after the Lamenters were disarmed.
The civilians and crew they had risked their lives to rescue launched a riot without hesitation, grabbing assorted tools and homemade firearms in an attempt to break them out.
The Lamenters were dumbfounded too. They desperately pleaded with the mortals following them to stop, narrowly preventing the nearby Dawn Army from treating those people as Genestealers and opening fire.
Astartes rescuing mortals was common, but mortals launching a suicidal attack to rescue Astartes was rare indeed.
Only after a series of investigations did the Department of the Interior establish one fact.
The Lamenters were that rare breed of Astartes who genuinely cared about mortals, with a sense of duty far greater than most of their kind.
Within Thunderhawk's territory, groups such as the Luna Wolves and Iron Warriors also cared quite a bit about mortal lives, but that was more because the "War Ordinance" kept them in check, rather than out of heartfelt concern.
As it happened, the next tax collection fleet was about to depart. Most of the veteran Astartes had already gone to the front, and the raw recruits simply could not be trusted.
So, after some negotiations, the Lamenters were granted their freedom, but they had to help collect taxes.
Chapter Master Hope loathed tax collection. He understood better than many Astartes just how awful that so-called collection could be.
The oppression of the Imperial Tithe had brought world after world to the brink of extinction, forcing