#pasanis

‘I do not wish to, but it is the only logical option,’ said Uriel. ‘You know it is. The longer we are out here, the more likely it is the necrons will locate us and attack in overwhelming force. It is only thanks to Adept Komeda’s skills in binaric obfuscation they have not already found us.’

‘So we just leave fellow Imperial soldiers to die, is that it?’

‘They are not Astartes, only–’

‘Only what?’ interrupted Pasanius. ‘Only mortals?’

‘That is not what I was going to say.’

‘Then what were you going to say?’

‘They are only three lives, weighed against the possibility of losing seven Ultramarines. Even their own Militarum strategos would not consider that an acceptable calculation.’

Pasanius removed his helmet and placed it on the rubble beside him. Dust caked his skin, and his eyes were bloodshot. His face was streaked in sweat, the lines in his face deeper and more careworn than Uriel remembered.

‘If they’re only mortals, then why risk your life to save Corporal Vivaro when we were about to crash?’ asked Pasanius.

Uriel shrugged. ‘I acted on instinct.’

‘Then hold to that instinct,’ said Pasanius. ‘Or you are not the man I followed into the Eye of Terror, not the man at whose side I have fought since our days at Agiselus.’

Anger touched Uriel, but he pushed it down, detaching his psyche from the combat stimm-boosters welling in his bloodstream. He took a series of long breaths and nodded, knowing Pasanius was right and pushing down the imperatives hardening his thoughts.

‘I apologise, my friend,’ he said. ‘You are right – the Rubicon has made me more powerful. I am stronger, faster and tougher. I think faster too, but the cost of that is terrible, cold logic that seeks to expunge weakness wherever I see it.’

‘Weakness? You think those soldiers are weak?’ said Pasanius.

‘Compared to us, they are.’

‘Compared to you, I am weak. Does your cold logic apply to me? To the Swords?’

‘Of course not,’ said Uriel, aghast. ‘You are my brother Astartes!’

‘For now,’ said Pasanius. ‘But how long will it be until the Primaris brethren outnumber the existing Space Marines? What happens then?’

Uriel had no answer for him, but his friend wasn’t yet done.