Rhinos rumbled forwards to the drop pods and lowered their loading ramps. Kletos followed Hierax into the Blood of Honour. The heavy armour landings were a continuous earth tremor.

Next to Kletos, Mnason grumbled, ‘More sitting. No marching.’

‘There will be plenty of marching,’ Hierax said. ‘But speed is the watchword of our advance. Tell me, legionary, are you opposed to reaching the enemy faster?’

‘No, captain, I am not. Please consider me happily resigned to sit a bit longer.’

‘So noted,’ Hierax said. He cocked his head, listening to his vox-bead. When the loading ramp clanged shut, he banged a gauntleted fist against the bulkhead separating the troop compartment from the driver. ‘Teosos,’ he barked. ‘The order is given. Take us forwards.’

The Blood of Honour lurched forwards, accelerating quickly. The Rhino was hungry for battle.

The armoured columns roared across the wide plain of Pyrrhan. Hierax opened the roof hatch of the Rhino to man the pintle-mounted storm bolter, and to witness the charge. For miles on either side of him, for many more to the rear, tanks and armoured transports in the blue and black of two Legions covered the land, and filled the air with choking clouds of exhaust. The air of Pyrrhan was thin and cold, and only the infernal heat of the foundries prevented the atmosphere from freezing and falling to earth. The smell of the engine fumes came in through the filters of Hierax’s helmet rebreather. He welcomed the stench of human machinery. It represented order. It was the hard, burnt tang of reason going to war.

Half a mile to his right, the Land Raider Flame of Illyrium advanced between the columns to lead the charge. It was the primarch’s command vehicle, and Guilliman rode in the upper hatch, pointing the way forwards, a living monument of gold and blue taking his sons to burn their way through the enemy. Hierax couldn’t see the lead elements of the Dark Angels from this distance, but he was willing to wager the Lion was as visible to them as the Avenging Son was to his legionaries. Hierax’s heart swelled with the pride of crusade.

‘Hierax,’ Iasus voxed, ‘what say you?’

Hierax glanced to his left, to where the Chapter Master rode as he did. ‘I say this is a sight long past due,’ he answered.

The sight was of the unity of the Emperor’s loyal Legions, of determination, and of their crushing strength. For several more minutes, Hierax consciously gave himself leave to revel in the sweep and storm and majesty of the tide of armour.