Felix could not disagree. The tyranids had stripped Sotha, the capital of the League and the home world of the Scythes of the Emperor, and nearly annihilated the Scythes in the process. He’d exchanged a few messages with the reduced Chapter, continuing negotiations to supply them with Primaris reinforcements to bring them back to full strength, but they were a ruined brotherhood, and shame dripped from every message they sent him.

‘One good thing to be said, is that the people were pleased to see us,’ Felix said. ‘We will not find much resistance there to reimposing direct rule, not if the ruling classes know what is good for them.’

‘In your experience, do people often know what is good for them?’ asked Guilliman.

Felix said nothing for a moment. ‘In truth, I do not know. I was a boy when I was taken by Cawl’s agents. I have been active only a dozen years since my reawakening from suspended animation, during which time I have known nothing but war. You told me I retained much of my humanity when many firstborn Primaris brothers did not, but I have had to take that on trust. I do not know people, my lord. So how can I tell?’

‘You are wrong, Decimus, you do know people. You have a facility for empathy. What does your instinct say?’

‘My gut says that people do not know what is good for them.’ He hesitated.

‘And?’

‘As individuals, people are intelligent creatures, but as a group, they are animals, and animals need a firm hand.’

‘I see,’ said Guilliman, and there was the space for an ocean of disappointment between those two words.

‘The philosophy is unimportant,’ Felix said hurriedly. ‘Action is. I have not had much trouble with the Imperial governors, and if any oppose us the people are ready to rise up. They have had enough of human greed and xenos terror.’

‘Then I trust you to put it right for me, my son,’ said Guilliman. He looked out of the window. ‘This war will never end. We can only fight for brief moments of peace. Once Mortarion is driven off, there will be other foes. The tyranids, the necrons, the t’au. I must leave you and the others to deal with them here. I have a galaxy to save.’

The primarch was unusually troubled. He stared off into space, then seemed to come back into himself.

‘Ultramar is nearly ours,’ Guilliman said briskly. ‘Not before time. This war has been a dangerous distraction from the Indomitus Crusade, and although I have tried to spare most of its assets from my duties here, relying instead upon forces gathered from the surrounding sectors, several battle groups of Fleet Primus are still occupied in Ultramar, where they could be liberating other worlds.’

‘It is all the same fight,’ said Felix. ‘Chaos must be defeated wherever it is found. This is an important war zone.’