At the sight of the serried ranks of the Legion deploying one cannot help but to be filled with pride. Pride to have such champions to make war for us. Pride to be able to stand in the company of such giants. Pride to be here, at the returning of the Last True Son. 

But I found that beneath my pride lay a fear to which I would not give voice in the company of my hosts for to do so would have been quite unbecoming. For on each occasion I found myself upon the observation gallery regarding Maka'ala, Ikaika or any of the other Argyntum Stellæ in who's company I had spent time as they swore oaths of moment upon the dispersal deck, I could not help but fear that perhaps this might be the last time I would see them among the living. 

For every rule, an exception as the Scrivencers might say and in this case they were not far wrong. To this day, I remain unsure as to what I might have done that invited such displeasure from the Kapihe known as Riverhead and though I wish I had not offended him so, I confess that I would not have shed tears were he to return from an undertaking upon his shield. 

But I digress. I like to imagine that my fondness for them was not frailty. That as I came to know them as more than warriors it was inevitable to worry for their safety, that that despite their augmentations and fearsome reputation it was only human. But as I dwelled upon this each time, I found myself posed a question I that daresay we might not wish be answered - would they mourn us as do them?

Illiatariu. C., Rememberancier Documantist Minoris. To Walk Among Demigods. A Treatise Upon The Nature of The Argyntum Stellae., Published 863.M33, Sector Heliopolis, Segmentum Pacificus.

Not only are the Astartes possesed of fearsome strength and resilience as a result of their genhanced physiology they are not exhausted by physical exertion in the same manner as we are either. While there are ultimately limits to what even the most well trained and conditioned transhuman can endure, they are to all intents and purposes almost completely indefatigable. 

Indeed, if the calculations based upon my observations of the Argyntum Stellæ training regimen are accurate, then at a conservative estimate the average Astartes can sustain a pace militari at a consistent speed of 13 miles per hour for around 20 hours before requiring rest. As such said Astartes could cover a distance of approximately 261 miles and still be fit for combat with little to no recovery time.

Given such a level of physical endurance, the inclusion of personnel carriers in the order of battle of an Astartes force might seem a little superfluous and indeed I asked [REDACTED] about this not long after I had been granted permission to interview those of my hosts who were amenable to it.

A rather naïve enquiry in retrospect, though of course I did not appreciate this at the time. The answer though was simply that a battlefield is a dangerous place and few are the warriors who do not value the additional level of protection that an armoured transport affords them beyond that of their own warplate. 

Like most Astartes forces, the Argyntum Stellæ were possessed of a number of patterns of armoured personnel carriers but the most numerous and easily recognisable was the Rhino. While perhaps not as fast as a Hesperus Grav-Tank or as heavily armed and armoured as a Land's Raider, the Rhino was favoured by many within the Legion for being mechanically reliable and of robust enough design that it could safely deliver an entire unit into battle within its armoured hull and even being capable of functioning as a mobile base of operations on extended deployments.

As it would turn out, this last factor would prove of vital importance in many of the undertakings that the Argyntum Stellæ would come to embark upon.

Illiatariu. C., Rememberancier Documantist Minoris. To Walk Among Demigods. A Treatise Upon The Nature of The Argyntum Stellae., Published 863.M33, Sector Heliopolis, Segmentum Pacificus.

...I once enquired of Maka'ala as to what had prompted the Legion's return from the outer darkness. As was so often the case, his answer was frustratingly ambiguous: we are come for that which we seek.

This was, as I discovered, a trait that was by no means unique to the Quæsitor and it remains my belief that the reticence of my hosts stemmed from two sources. The first was that I was not of the Legion and as such there were operational details about their undertakings that I did not need to know. The second was simply that they were not accustomed to being asked questions for the sake of curiosity, and certainly not by a mortal such as I. 

As we became more conversant however, there were some who became particularly amenable to discussion including Ikaika, Tuel'laewe, Maka'ala, and old Iolani, Throne rest him. But they were always more willing to draw back the veils that occluded their past than reveal what lay in the future and after a fashion I learned not to try to draw forth their views upon events that were yet to pass.

As you might imagine, this made understanding the ongoing situation in Heliopolis and Morqub somewhat difficult and I will remain eternally grateful to the ratings and officers I was fortunate to become acquainted with shortly after my arrival among the Argyntum Stellae who were willing to elucidate on such matters of state with which they were aware and permitted over an amasec or cerevisya in the commisary. 

Naturally, I regarded more than a little of the information I gleaned in this fashion as apocryphal at best and of who or what the Argyntum Stellae sought to locate, I was to remain, for a time at least, in ignorance...   

Illiatariu. C., Rememberancier Documantist Minoris. To Walk Among Demigods. A Treatise Upon The Nature of The Argyntum Stellae., Published 863.M33, Sector Heliopolis, Segmentum Pacificus.