A slightly smaller Mess

*As does the sergeant. his rank denoted by the midnight black paint of his helmet* "You cannot fail to notice the air of... tension." *he speaks slowly, words chosen with care*

"Of course I can't. Let us not dance around the subject. We are looked down upon, no?"

"By some, certainly." *his tone is hard to decipher. The sentence is simply a statement, with no weight given to if he agrees or not.* "Logen believes you to be a perversion of the emperors work. In his own words, brought about by guillimans pride and hubris." *again, he betrays no sense of either allegiance to logen's words, or opposition to them*

the marine ejects the supply from his plasma incinerator, cleaning the insertion point out
"Perhaps we are. I'm not the person to make that judgement. I just know why I was created, and what my job is. No sense wasting time on that when there are people to protect, and enemies to kill."

"Spoken like a salamander. Mostly." *there is an edge of approval in this tone this time.*

*Max carries his wife to their bedroom and lays her down on the bed, before returning to Kerak now wearing his own suit of semi powered armour . The only real noticeable difference between his and Akira's is that his was obviously built for a man and has a built in coat*

Max: "Ready?"

Kerak: "My kindred thirst for a fight."

"I appreciate the sentiment"

*the sergeant takes on a more... fatherly tone, as he sits down on the deck. Odd to be talked to like this by someone a foot shorter than you.* "Logen can be rash, prone to snap judgements."

"I can see why he is an assault marine. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of his fury in battle."

Max: "As do I. We'll land just below the bridge, and clear our way to it. Once we're there I can vent the ship and bring a skeleton crew aboard to fly her home. Then we board the other vessel, exact same plan. Any questions?"

Kerak: "Waste of good meat."

Sergeant: "You'll witness it soon enough."

Max: "Would you prefer it if I simply let you and your Kroot hunt them down once we've got control of the bridge?"

"I'm sure I will."

Kerak: "It will be a great hunt."

Sergeant: "You have only seen ultramarines fight as of yet, aside from the captain and his guard?"

"No. We were a part of the unnumbered sons, guilliman's primary force in the crusade. There are astartes within the sons from every first founding chapter."

"I am unsure if that is a brilliant idea... or an idiotic one." *he cocks his head slightly to one side, in thought*

"I am told the intent is that we learn from eachother's combat styles. The lord commander believes that the extreme differences between the legions were a contributing factor to the cause of the horus heresy."

"Hmmmmn... That... That i take ire with."

"Not removing who we are as a chapter mind. Just making sure we work better with our brothers from other chapters. Our variety and autonomy is important. But we cannot be so isolated we are incompatible"

"I would argue that incompatibility is... Impossible to remove... And raises a question."

"Namely?"

"I would not ask you such a question. As i know how you would answer, the question would simply be if you were lying." *he looks dead at the marine* "Where does your first loyalty lie, after the imperium? With the chapter, or the brothers guilliman stood you beside?"

"At this exact moment? Noctis. I simply have yet to fight beside any of our chapter outside my primaris brothers. However *finishes his weapon maintenance* It is my hope, and that of Noctis, that our captain, along with you and your brothers, will be able to show us what it means to be salamanders. If you can ever bring yourselves to not look upon us with scorn."

"..." *he sighs, opens the clasp of his combat blade's sheath with a quick movement of thumb and forefinger, and draws the blade into his lap, retrieving a whetstone, and working on its edge.*
"I understand Brother Logen's anger." *he drags the stone along the edge in long strokes* "You wear our colours, yet know nothing of us."

"Not nothing. Our honoured brother has taught us what he can."

"Of course, the dreadnought. But the point does stand. There is a process to becoming an astartes. A path we all walked, the shared experience is... Important among a chapter."

"I know. This is something we cannot help however. Not something we had a say in."

*he runs the stone along the edge, a long, rasping sound* "Which is why i blame guilliman, and not you. He has made... errors."

"He is far from perfect. But these are far from perfect times. We have little choice, I suppose."

"I fear he may have done more harm than good. In the worst case, i see brothers rebelling against his orders."

"And what of you, brother?"

"I have no love for Robute Guilliman. But i will follow, for the sake of the imperium's people."

"And if other chapters share your sanity, then things should go well."

"They unfortunately do not. The wolves and the dark angels will most likely resist guillimans commands."

"Considering the situations they are both in, turning down reinforcement seems suicidal."

"You do not know the wolves." *he tests the edge of the blade with his thumb* "Their pride and tradition may well have them refuse."

Laurence: *reaches out and picks a book off charles' shelf* "So where do you plan on going after the resupply run?"

Charles: unsure. I was considering Armageddon, aid in the extraction of imperial forces.

Marine: maybe.

Laurence: "The salamanders would approve. But we're hardly equipped to help an evacuation. They are certainly."

Sergeant: "Speaking of the wolves. A thought occurs."

Charles: true. But we can aid it in other ways. Defending evac zones and such.

Marine: namely?

Laurence: "You know as well as i we'd be better used in more covert operations. Scions are skilled, but carapace armour does nothing to stop a bolt shell to the face" *He raises an eyebrow*

Sergeant: "You have no assault units. How did the crusade function?"

Charles: do you know the situation on armageddon, laurence?

Marine: usually through the use of highly mobile, superior firepower

Sergeant: "Hmn." *Obvious disapproval sound*

Laurence: "I'm assuming bad, the place is always a shit hole" *Is leafing through the book, charles sees the spine, its Jekyl and Hyde.*

"Besides, we can fight in melee just fine, we just tend to let the enemy become whittled down by our fire before we engage them. Especially useful in defensive missions, where lives may hang upon keeping the enemy at a distance"

Charles: the world is half engulfed in the warp now, with khornate and tzeentchian daemons battling across its surface, as well as the ork infestation.

Sergeant: "Uhuhhh.... I'm not irked by your lack of chainswords, but by your tactics. You've a lot to learn."

Laurence: *turns page, looks over the top of the book, and mouths the word exterminatus*

Marine: agreed.

Charles: however, we cannot simply leave that many good men to die on its surface, no? Especially not after the last attempt to 'clean up' armageddon....

Laurence: "You realise... Were going to have to kill the job lot of them this time. Half the planet's in the warp they're all tainted."

Sergeant: "Highly mobile is not something we embrace."

Charles: Are you kidding me? Do you know how many men are there? We can't afford that loss of man power, and we especially can't afford what happened last time.

Marine: I assume you're more mobile than say, the militarum.

Laurence: "We can't afford that many men going over to the other side."

Sergeant: "Somewhere between the guard and our brother chapters. We prefer a slower more careful approach, but not the millitarums artillery campaigns.

Charles: damned if we do, damned if we don't.

the brother nods, examining part of his gun