"Welcome to Malakbel, Colonel Carsten, Commissar Lawrence. On behalf of the Fourth Fleet, I welcome you both. Everyone here, myself included, has heard of your deeds on Viridia. You are heroes of the Imperium."
Though his words were a courtesy, they brought solemn expressions to the faces of the naval officers whose eyes had still held a trace of disdain.
"It is our honor to serve the Imperium, Admiral." Colonel Carsten immediately stood at attention, answering in his ringing, forceful, impeccably Mordian voice.
Admiral Abukhensis nodded slightly. Then his gaze passed over Carsten and settled directly on the young commissar, who had worn a calm smile throughout, as though he were merely here to sightsee.
"Commissar Lawrence," he said, his voice growing serious, "the Lord Regent's handwritten letter informed me of the unique nature of you and your troops. But I must know what, exactly, you have come here for. What can you-or rather, all of you-bring to this coming war, upon which the future of the entire Imperium Nihilus depends?"
His question was direct and pointed. Every gaze in the room focused on Alexander.
The smile on Alexander's face did not fade in the slightest. Instead of answering directly, he slowly walked over to the enormous three-dimensional star map.
"Admiral," he said, extending his intact right hand and pointing to the planet marked "Malakbel" on the star map, "may I ask whether you know who the enemy we are about to face is?"
Admiral Abukhensis fell silent. The officers behind him stirred with barely suppressed unease.
"...I do." Only after a long moment did the admiral's steady voice sound again, but this time it carried a weariness and gravity even he had not noticed. "The Grey Knights have already told me the name we least wanted to hear."
"Angron."
The instant that name left the admiral's lips, the temperature across the bridge seemed to drop by more than ten degrees. An icy shadow, steeped in blood and despair, fell over every heart.
Angron. The name itself was taboo, the embodiment of the purest, most inexorable, most frenzied destruction.
"It seems you have already prepared for the worst." Alexander nodded. "Then I will waste no more time."
He turned to face everyone present. "I have come with only one request. I ask that my 99th Regiment, the Pride of Cadia, be deployed at the Hymn Engine's final line of defense."
His words were like a massive stone hurled into a still lake, instantly unleashing an uproar of shock and bewilderment across the bridge.
"What?!"
"The final line of defense? Isn't that the safest place?!"
A hot-tempered captain from the Mars Fleet was the first to lose restraint and shout a challenge. "Boy! What do you think this place is? A tourist attraction? We are about to face a Daemon Primarch! An entire Chaos legion! And you want to take your troops and hide at the very back?!"
"I've heard all about your exploits! One suicide bombing! Nothing but luck! You army cowards! You've only come here to steal the fruits of the victory our navy will pay for in blood and lives!"
His words immediately drew a chorus of agreement.
"That's right! Cowards!"
"Crawl back to your trenches! You're not welcome here!"
Facing the wave of hostility and contempt crashing toward him, Alexander kept smiling. He even bowed slightly to the Mars Fleet captain who had hurled the fiercest abuse.
"You are right, General. We are indeed cowards." His answer left everyone stunned.
"Before Angron, that godlike incarnation of wrath, any soldier who still possesses human emotions will become a coward. Their legs will tremble with fear, their weapons will fall from their hands in despair, and the fragile courage built upon Imperial dogma will crumble the instant it touches that pure, primal divinity of slaughter. They will weep, flee, and fall to their knees to beg for mercy. But in the end, that wrathful demigod will crush them to pieces as effortlessly as he would trample an ant."
His voice was quiet, yet it carried an uncanny power that cut through the air like an incantation. The vision of bloodshed and despair he painted sent an involuntary, bone-deep chill up the spines of every battle-hardened officer present.
"Ordinary soldiers cannot stop Angron, no matter how many there are or how well equipped they may be. Because they can still feel 'fear.'"
Alexander paused, then slowly raised his head. Within his pale golden eyes, the gaze that had always been as still as an ancient well suddenly blazed! It was a fire fiercer and purer than that of the most fanatical Chaos cultist anyone present had ever seen!
"But my soldiers are different. They no longer feel 'fear.' They have already given their souls to their 'fireplace.' To them, death is not an end, but a return-the most glorious ritual, in which they become fuel to keep their family warm."
He slowly raised his cold, fearsome steel left hand. "My ten thousand soldiers and I have not come here for victory, nor for honor. We have come to carry enough explosives to blow this battleship to pieces and die together with that wrathful Red Angel. We are the final match that will set the entire pyre ablaze."
"So, Admiral." He looked once more at the fleet's commander-in-chief, who had remained silent throughout, though his eyes had grown increasingly grave and conflicted. "Please place us closest to the pile of kindling. Because only we are worthy-and capable-of lighting it."
A deathly silence fell over the bridge. Everyone was utterly shaken by Alexander's declaration, so full of madness and heresy, yet imbued with the purest, most absolute spirit of sacrifice. They looked at the young commissar before them, with only one arm remaining, and at his blazing pale golden eyes, and suddenly understood. This was not cowardice, but a mad courage utterly beyond their comprehension.
After a long while, Admiral Abukhensis let out a long sigh laden with conflicting emotions.
"...I understand." He walked up to Alex and, for the first time, offered the young man his hand. "The Imperium thanks you for your sacrifice."
Smiling, Alexander clasped the admiral's hand with his intact right hand. "You're welcome. After all, we are-family."