Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

Lin and Hays made their way to the entrance of the Secondary Hive, where Kurande had already been waiting for them.

On Lin's orders, the production equipment from the Primary Hive had been relocated to the Secondary Hive. From here on out, the Secondary Hive would serve as their main stronghold.

The starport's space elevator, however, was still anchored in the Primary Hive, which meant anything transported down from the starport still had to pass through Primary Hive territory for the time being.

That arrangement would hold until the Orks smashed the starport with their overwhelming fleet — and not a moment longer.

Lin stepped forward, and noticed immediately that Kurande's expression was not one of relief, but of worry.

"Forge Director Lifar has already gone ahead to the starport to receive the Exemplary Fists." Kurande offered a brief explanation as he registered Lin and Hays's arrival. "We simply need to wait here for the Exemplary Fists Chapter to arrive."

"The first reinforcements for the Ultimate Wall have just shown up — why do you still look like someone kicked your dog?" Lin asked.

Kurande sighed. "Because the Chapter in question is called the Exemplary Fists."

When Roboute Guilliman had issued the Codex Astartes, the vast majority of the Seventh Legion's warriors — along with their Primarch Rogal Dorn himself — had stood in opposition to it. Yet a portion of the Seventh Legion's warriors had embraced the Codex Astartes, seeing it as the foundation of a new and necessary order.

When Dorn ultimately accepted Guilliman's proposal to break up the Legions, he gathered those warriors who had supported the Codex Astartes and forged them into an entirely new Chapter — the Exemplary Fists. The "Exemplary" in their name referred, in essence, to the Codex Astartes itself.

Lin understood at once. "You're worried that the Exemplary Fists haven't come here to rally beneath the Ultimate Wall?"

"They might even question the Ultimate Wall's legitimacy outright — after all, it violates that glorified piece of toilet paper they call the Codex."

Kurande's words dripped with contempt, and Hays shifted uncomfortably beside him.

That said, Hays had come to understand that the Ork threat was not something a handful of Chapters could simply turn back. He wasn't about to dig in his heels here and proclaim that the Exemplary Fists were the true model for the whole Imperium to follow. Instead, he stepped forward and made his own position clear.

"I'll speak with them — in my capacity as High Lord."

"I doubt that will help." Kurande dismissed the offer without ceremony.

It wasn't defiance — he genuinely believed it would accomplish nothing.

The sons of Dorn had always been known for speaking their minds without filter, yet the resolve Hays had shown was enough to ease Kurande's expression slightly. "I only hope those warriors still remember the oaths they once swore before our father Dorn."

Lin, for his part, was already thinking ahead. "Once the Exemplary Fists join us, we can invite their Chapter Master to sit in on our discussions about the defensive deployment going forward."

Kurande shot Lin a puzzled glance, clearly at a loss as to why Lin could speak with such certainty that the Exemplary Fists would join them at all.

Lin offered no explanation. He simply clapped Kurande on the shoulder. "How to forge them back into a single Legion — that's the real challenge you'll have to face."

—

Kurande's worry was not without cause. Zebyrean, for one, had been brooding the entire journey.

He could not refuse his Chapter Master's orders, no matter how little he wished to comply. And so he had followed Sorn to the Phal System — and once in the Phal System, they had been directed to the nearest Forge World to Phal: Cath Maximus.

With the four hundred-odd remaining warriors of the Chapter, they descended from the Chapter's last strike cruiser — the Meticulous Pursuit — to the surface of Cath Maximus.

There, the Archmagos Lifar, who had been waiting for some time, guided them toward the Secondary Hive. And like Hays before them — when he had first met Lifar — they too detected that something was off about the Forge Director from his words and manner.

"This Forge Director looks like he's being controlled by something," Zebyrean muttered over the internal vox-channel. He turned to Sorn, seeking his assessment. "And the Imperial Fists' Chapter Master didn't come in person to receive us. Could this be a trap?"

Sorn did not answer. His gaze was drifting, wandering across the crumbling walls that lined their path. Zebyrean followed Sorn's line of sight and saw what had caught his attention: slogans slathered across the broken masonry.

DELIVER OUTPUT OR DELIVER YOUR CORPSE!

DAY SHIFTS AND NIGHT SHIFTS BACK TO BACK — RACE THE CLOCK, MEET THE QUOTA!

TURN EVERY GEAR, GRIND HARD, PUSH HARDER, GIVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!

The tech-priests around them were moving with frantic urgency. Though this Forge World had clearly suffered devastating damage, every single one of them radiated a fierce vitality — a burning energy that had been transmuted into a passion for work, driving them to throw themselves into their duties with everything they had, spurred on by those blaring slogans.

Sorn studied the scene with careful attention. Zebyrean was growing irritated, convinced Sorn was wasting his focus on irrelevances.

"Chapter Master Sorn, I must remind you — the Codex demands that we maintain constant and keen vigilance at all times—"

"Then apply that vigilance where it actually belongs, Brother Zebyrean. The Codex's call for keen awareness was never meant to be turned against your own battle-brothers."

Sorn cut off Zebyrean's challenge without even glancing at him, his gaze still fixed on the production slogans. "Forget the Forge Director for a moment — have you not sensed that something is off about this entire Forge World?"

Zebyrean was genuinely at a loss, and Sorn continued, his tone shifting into something almost nostalgic.

"I find I rather like this feeling. It reminds me of the Great Crusade."

Zebyrean felt a wave of revulsion.

He knew, of course, that he ought to hold in reverence a warrior like Sorn — one who had survived from the Great Crusade all the way to the present day. But the man's constant harking back to the Great Crusade's glories, combined with his open and habitual disregard for the Codex Astartes, provoked a deep and persistent distaste in him.

Who was to say that these old warriors had not become an obstacle to the very development of the Codex Astartes?

But he would not speak those words aloud. The Codex held that a proper warrior could voice his doubts with reason — but could not vent his frustrations with emotion.

He had no choice but to follow Sorn forward in silence. They passed through the Primary Hive and finally, at the entrance to the Secondary Hive, caught sight of a warrior clad in Imperial Fists power armour.

The warrior's markings placed him as nothing more than a company captain, yet beside him stood a Mechanicus Archmagos and an Astra Militarum commander.

The small party stood there plainly, in no particular ceremony, waiting for the Exemplary Fists to arrive.

"No Chapter Master. No honour guard. No formal rites?" Zebyrean was taken aback.

An honour guard was not only a mark of respect to visiting Chapters — it was a display of the host Chapter's own glory and pride. He had not expected the Imperial Fists, the founding Chapter, to issue the call of the Ultimate Wall and then not even bother to organise such formalities.

But the surprise was not Zebyrean's alone. Kurande, who had recognised the identity of the Exemplary Fists' leader, was equally startled.

"Maximus Sorn. I didn't expect him to have become the Chapter Master of the Exemplary Fists."

"You know him?" Lin asked. "What's remarkable about this man?"

"Not well — but there are precious few Imperial Fists who wouldn't know the name of an ancient warrior who has lived for over a thousand years. During the Horus Heresy, he served as the Captain of the Imperial Fists' 22nd Company. He supported the breaking up of the Legion and joined the Exemplary Fists, where he has served as Second Company Captain ever since."

Kurande's expression darkened. "If an ancient warrior of his stature were to oppose the Ultimate Wall..."

Lin said nothing, but his thoughts were turning.

He knew that in the original timeline, Sorn would become one of Kurande's most steadfast and devoted followers — and would assume the position of Imperial Fists Chapter Master after Kurande fell in battle. But the details of this ancient warrior's past were something Lin knew far less about than Kurande did.

Avoidance would solve nothing. Worried as he was, Kurande stepped forward to meet them.

"Welcome, brothers of the Exemplary Fists. And congratulations are in order, Brother Sorn — I didn't expect you to have taken up the mantle of Chapter Master."

"Entrusted to me by another," Sorn replied simply. "I didn't expect you to have seized a Forge World, either... Where is Chapter Master Molhan?"

"He fell in battle. I am Kurande, former Second Company Captain. The Imperial Fists now fall under my command."

Sorn paused for a moment, then looked Kurande up and down with a long, measured gaze. The power armour Kurande wore was scarred and battered, bearing only the markings of a company captain.

It was plain to see: they had not even had the resources to hold a proper succession ceremony for the Chapter Master.

"Was it you who issued the call of the Ultimate Wall?" Sorn asked, confirming what he suspected.

"It was."

Kurande gave a single nod, and his gaze reached past Sorn to the Exemplary Fists assembled behind him.

"And this is what I must now put to you."

"Brothers of the Exemplary Fists — are you willing to answer the call of the Ultimate Wall, to once more take your place under the leadership of the Imperial Fists, and to shoulder once again the sacred duty of defending Terra?"

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