‘No, my lord. It is because I have met you, and I see you are sincere, if misguided.’ He bowed again. ‘I shall do as you ask and write the sermon, and I shall speak its words, and in one week I shall give you my answer as to whether I will accept the appointment.’

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

News from Ultramar

As the fleet underwent repairs and resupply ships flew in from across the sector to provision the crusade, so work was begun on the surface of 108/Beta-Kalapus-9.2. Battlefield scrap was taken away. The bodies of the traitors burnt. When all trace of the fighting was gone, the site of victory was prepared for the Triumph of Raukos.

Flocks of auto-praisers flew over the bare earth, singing hymns, while priests in floating pulpits shouted out blessings to cleanse the ground of unclean influences. Staggered lines of giant machines scraped the ground flat under dozer blades fifty metres wide. Behind them came large tankers with fanned maws that sprayed liquid rockcrete behind them. Following the tankers, an army of men with rakes and brushes laboured to spread the rockcrete flat before it could set. Dozens of artisans watched over them, their servo-skulls and slaved cyber beasts measuring the flatness of the foundations for the esplanade in a pulsed storm of laser light. As the screed set, servitors followed, laying a complex mosaic of coloured stones brought from all over the sector in cement dribbled by their nozzle-handed fellows. Finally came trucks fitted with brushes and polishing limbs. In this way, the rocky plain was replaced by a huge martial square three miles across, decorated with a giant mosaic.

The plaza at the valley mouth was just the beginning. Machines laboured at the face of the hills. Demolition walkers tore down the wall of the Iron Warriors. Before they had dismantled half of it, work started on a huge proscenium at the site of the wall’s central gate. It framed the valley with huge pillars and a pediment from which the statues of Imperial heroes gazed. The noise of industry was tremendous, echoing across the plains for hundreds of miles. The activity continued up into orbit. Lines of landing freighters came down from the sky, bearing workers and materials.

Guilliman watched his plans being put into action from the viewing deck of a bulky construction crawler. Felix had done his job well. The machines outside were not the great geo-planers of old, but they were adequate to the task. The captain had learned much. Felix was unaware of his own talent. The Primaris Space Marine would need it all, soon enough.