Original subtitles

[metallic rumbling]

[dramatic music playing]

[dark music playing]

[metallic skittering]

[metallic rasping]

[thunderous footsteps]

[static]

[Sa'kan] How it hated us.

[Brutus] Hatred is the only virtue they possess.

[electric crackling]

[Sa'kan] One of my Chapter's loremasters believes these creatures were once alive.

If that is true, I wonder what they lost, in becoming what they are.

Was it a willing sacrifice?

[Brutus] The losses suffered by aliens are meaningless.

As are their sacrifices.

[Sa'kan] No sacrifice is meaningless.

[Brutus] Hmph.

[solemn music playing]

[heavy metallic footsteps]

[Sa'kan] Lieutenant Vayla.

Recovery mission proceeding as planned.

Thus far, we have found no trace of our brothers.

Minimal enemy presence,

but inceptive evidence of Necron colonisation.

[Lieutenant Vayla on radio] I hear and acknowledge.

Sixty-five hours until final withdrawal of our forces...

my lord.

[Brutus] Your question vexes me.

Regarding the aliens.

They fascinate you.

[Sa'kan] To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy.

[Brutus] So the Codex says.

But I hear more than that old axiom in your tone, Salamander.

I hear the taint of empathy,

and empathy is a blade's edge from sympathy.

[Sa'kan] Are we to trade axioms now?

To endure in this galaxy requires sacrifice.

The Imperium demands it of us.

Worlds are tithed for resources.

Willing or unwilling,

it is the price humanity pays for its empire.

And we make sacrifices ourselves, do we not?

[Brutus] The Tithe is a necessary oblation,

that our gene-seed be tested for purity.

And lest you forget, Salamander,

the Ultramarines ensure the Imperium's survival.

Three in four Chapters descend from our gene-seed.

Our blood matters.

[Sa'kan]I speak not of the Chapter Tithe.

I speak of our home worlds.

[Brutus] They tithe nothing.

[Sa'kan] Of course they do.

They tithe their most valuable resource.

Us.

The men we will never be.

Our humanity, offered up on the anvil of war.

[Brutus] Regret is a sin in the Litanies of Hate.

[Sa'kan] I regret nothing.

I merely acknowledge what we lost.

And if the tales are true,

what they lost, as well.

[Brutus] You are too...

too human, Sa'kan.

Your Chapter, as honourable as it is,

is riven by this weakness.

[loud metallic scraping]

[ominous music playing]

[robotic shriek]

[Brutus grunts]

[Brutus yells]

[Sa'kan] Are you wounded?

[Brutus] Where were you?

[Sa'kan] I was circling around to the west.

I did not abandon you, Brutus.

[Brutus] Many are the tales that tell of the Salamanders' lack of zeal.

I never believed them.

But I ask myself if I am witnessing it with my own eyes now.

[Sa'kan] I have watched entire worlds ignite.

I have breathed in the char of incinerated cities and known...

known I am inhaling the ash of those I failed to save.

The proof of my honour is in the wounds taken and scars earned.

And still I fight.

[air whooshing]

I know the necessity of your mission

and I will fight alongside you to secure your brothers' legacy, but...

Do not question my zeal again, Ultramarine.

[flames crackling]

You have my Chapter's gratitude. And my apology.

Forgiven and forgotten.

[dramatic music playing]

[Brutus] This was the site of the Ninth Reach offensive.

But...

They are not here.

It has been five hours and nineteen minutes

since the commencement of infiltration,

and this is the second confirmed node of apex conflict.

Where are our fallen, Sa'kan?

Where are my brothers' bodies?

[Sa'kan] The most obvious answer is also the most abhorrent.

The enemy has taken them.

[Brutus] To what purpose?

[Sa'kan] I have encountered the xenos' lord overseeing this invasion.

It would be in keeping with this creature's behaviour thus far

to experiment on our fallen.

Its vileness knows no limit.

I swore a blood-oath to see it dead.

[dark music playing]

[mechanical whirring]

-[Sa'kan] Five. -[Brutus] We can deal with five.

We do not know how many lie beyond that gateway.

It does not matter.

This foulness ends today.

-Lysander's Gambit? -A little bold, given our situation.

I counsel Bellerophon's Fourth Approach.

Let it be so.

Courage and honour, cousin.

[Sa'kan] Into the fires of battle.

Unto the anvil of war.

[metallic footsteps]

[heroic music playing]

[Brutus panting]

[robotic screeching]

[electric crackling]

[Sa'kan] Sacrilege...

[electricity crackling]

[Brutus] Four bodies.

All beyond reawakening.

Terminal sus-an via trauma.

I will need time.

Forgive my hasty ministrations, brother.

[metallic grinding]

[Sa'kan] What of these unfortunates?

[Brutus] With respect, Salamander,

their lives and deaths are equally irrelevant.

Most appear gravely wounded.

We cannot save them.

[laboured breathing]

[whirring and squelching]

[Szeras] Ah, the most persistent anomaly.

In pursuit of elucidation, I ask the following:

What is it you hope to achieve by reaching this--

Cease.

You are clearly dedicated

to committing some kind of genetic amelioration

upon these corpses.

But did you not swear vengeance, anomaly?

Did you not make an emotive promise to engage me in battle?

This gateway will bring you into my presence.

Abandon your companion.

Come to me.

[Brutus] Sa'kan...

[Szeras] Fulfil your tawdry little oath.

[dramatic music playing]

[gauss weapons hissing]

[Sa'kan] Sword!

[tense music playing]

[Sa'kan breathing heavily]

[grunting]

[Brutus] Sa'kan...

[Brutus grunting]

[gentle music playing]

[Sa'kan] I will get them home.

[soft dramatic music playing]

[Sa'kan] Brother Sa'kan to Lieutenant Vayla.

Sa'kan to Vayla!

[Lieutenant Vayla on radio] Sa'kan? Come in.

[Vayla distorted with static] We cannot track you...

We are moving reinforcements to your last known position.

[Sa'kan] Say again. Interference. Repeat.

[male voice] This is Captain Ixiom of the Ultramarines' Seventh.

Get to high ground, Sa'kan.

Thunderhawk inbound.

[dramatic music playing]

[explosions]

[dramatic music playing]