'Give it back, Jonah, please,’
'I'm not in the mood for another sermon from this damned Lectitio Divinitatus chapbook,’
'Fine, I'll put it away, just give it back, alright?'
Jonah nodded and held the well-thumbed paper out to Cassar, who snatched it back and quickly slid it inside his uniform jacket.
Rubbing his temples with the heel of his palms, Jonah said, 'Anyway, what's the rush? It's not as though the old girl's even ready for the pre-deployment checks, is she?'
'I pray you'll stop referring to it as a she, Jonah, it smacks of pagan anthropomorphising,’ said Cassar. A
Titan is a war machine, nothing more: steel, adamantine and plasma with flesh and blood controlling it,’
'How can you say that?' asked Araken, sauntering over to a steel plated leg section and climbing the steps to the arched gates that led within. He slapped his palm on the thick metal and said, 'She's obviously a she, Titus. Look at the shapely legs, the curve of the hips, and doesn't she carry us within her like a mother protecting her unborn children?'
'In mockery are the seeds of impiety sown,’ said Cassar without a trace of irony, 'and I will not have it,’
'Oh, come on, Titus,’ said Araken, warming to his theme. 'Don't you feel it when you're inside her? Don't you hear the beat of her heart in the rumble of her reactor, or feel the fury of her wrath in the roar of her guns?'
Cassar turned back to the monitoring panel and said, 'No, I do not, and I do not wish to hear any more of your foolishness, we are already behind on our pre-deployment checks. Princeps Turnet will have our hides nailed to the hull if we are not ready,’
'Where is the princeps?' asked Jonah, suddenly serious.
'With the War Council,’ said Cassar.
Araken nodded and descended the steps of the Titan's foot, joining Cassar at the monitoring station and letting fly with one last jibe. 'Just because you've never had the chance to enjoy a woman doesn't mean I'm not right,’
Cassar gave him a withering glare, and said, 'Enough. The War Council will be done soon, and I'll not have it said that the Legio Mortis wasn't ready to do the Emperor's bidding,’
'You mean Horas's bidding,’ corrected Jonah.
4Ve have been over this before, my friend,’ said Cassar. 'Horas's authority comes from the Emperor. We forget that at our peril,’
That's as maybe, but it's been many a dark and bloody day since we've fought with the Emperor beside us, hasn't it? But hasn't Horus always been there for us on every battlefield?'
'Indeed he has, and for that I'd follow him into battle beyond the Halo stars,’ nodded Cassar. 'But even the Warmaster has to answer to the God-Emperor,’
'God-Emperor?' hissed Jonah, leaning in close as he saw a number of the ground crew turn their heads towards them. 'Listen, Titus, you have to stop this God-Emperor rubbish. One day you're going to say that to the wrong person and you'll get your skull cracked open. Besides, even the Emperor himself says he's not a god,’
'Only the truly divine deny their divinity,’ said Cassar, quoting from his book.
Jonah raised his hands in surrender and said, 'Alright, have it your way, Titus, but don't say I didn't warn you,’
The righteous have nothing to fear from the wicked, and-'
'Spare me another lesson on ethics, Titus,’ sighed Jonah, turning away and watching as a detachment of Imperial Army soldiers marched into the hangar, lasri-fles on canvas slings hanging from their shoulders.
'Any word yet on what we're going to be fighting on this rock?' asked Jonah, changing the subject, 'I hope it's the green skin. We still owe them for the destruction of Vulkas Tor on Ullanor. Do you think it will be the green skin?'
Cassar shrugged. 'I don't know, Jonah. Does it matter? We fight who we are ordered to fight,’
'I just like to know,’
"Уои will know when Princeps Turnet returns,’ said Cassar. 'Speaking of which, hadn't you better prepare the command deck for his return?'
Jonah nodded, knowing that his fellow moderati was right and that he'd wasted enough time in baiting him.
Senior Princeps Esau Turnet's reputation as a feared, ruthless warrior was well deserved and he ran a tight ship on the
