Grimnr picked his way through the plans covering the primarch's chamber, no mean feat in full power armour. Geri looked up lazily. His head thumped back to the floor when he saw who had come. Within two breaths he was snoring again.

Russ took the tube and tore off the crimped lead seals. He tipped out the rolled paper inside. He made a noise in his throat as he read.

'Good tidings or bad?'

'Good,' said Russ. 'My brother Sanguinius has entered the Solar System. There is to be a welcome, and then a council.' He rolled up the paper and tapped it back into the tube with the palm of his hand. 'They're not going to like what I have to tell them.'

'You've made it clear since the beginning you intended to go after Horus.'

'Dorn assumes I have changed my mind. He is dogged that way. He won't accept I haven't.'

'Perhaps you should send a message ahead, outlining your plans. Take the sting out of our leaving?'

Russ laughed sadly. 'And spoil my chance for a little drama? You must think more boldly, my son. Consider how the sagas will remember you. I shall make the skjald's task easier by adding a little tension to the story of my thread. Inform my blademakers and armourers.'

'You will go armoured?'

Russ nodded. 'My panoply should look its best. Appearances matter in circumstances like these.'

'At once, my jarl.'

Russ sniffed, and looked over his shoulder to where the Emperor's Spear leaned in a weapon's rack.

'I'd better take that bloody thing with me,' he said. 'Find someone willing to polish it. I would not wish to disappoint my father, if He decides to show His face.'

The ships of the Blood Angels sailed in to Terran high orbit escorted by craft of the Imperial Fists. From their broadsides Dorn's fleet cast out an endless stream of pyrotechnics, showering the red ships of the IX Legion in bursts of light. The celebratory display did little to hide the realities of war. Sanguinius' flotilla was storm-wracked and battleworn. Many of his craft had not made it to Terra. Very few of those that had were intact. Black scoring marred their livery. The burned-out cavities of voided decks riddled their skins. In this they were like the ships of Sanguinius' brothers. They were all living on borrowed time.

Sights of damage were kept from the populace at large. Where the ships were subject to pict documentary, they were shot from flattering angles and their wounds touched up by vidcast painters. Sanguinius' fleet put into anchor, the most heavily damaged towed by void tug to the few free dry docks. With many of the Jovian shipyards destroyed by Kelbor-Hal, and Mars' Ring of Iron inaccessible on the other side of the blockade, Terra's more modest facilities were over-subscribed.