Darnath Lysander - The Storm Breaks: The return of Lysander's strike force to Phalanx should have been a time for sober celebration, but such was not to be. Shortly after the Storm of Wrath had taken formation with the rest of the Imperial Fists fleet, Sergeant Garadon had requested a private audience with Vladimir Pugh, and therein laid bare the story of the 3rd Company’s near-demise.Such a meeting was not altogether unusual amongst the Imperial Fists, for the warriors of that Chapter have ever held one another to the highest standards of deportment and discipline. Nevertheless, this was not a step that Garadon took lightly. For a sergeant to seek censure of a captain was unusual enough; to demand it of an honoured hero like Lysander? There would be no good outcome from such a challenge.It said much of Garadon’s unease at the situation that he had three times sought Lysander out during the homeward voyage. He had hoped to see some element of contrition from the captain, some sign that the follies of Taladorn would not occur again. On each occasion, Garadon was angrily dismissed, with Lysander threatening to strip the sergeant of his rank if he persisted. Garadon was perceptive enough to recognise that he was not the true target of the captain’s anger, but wise enough to realise that matters had progressed beyond his ability to rectify.Pugh was greatly displeased. His ire stemmed not from the Sergeant's candour -- indeed, he commended Garadon for speaking on the matter. Nor was the rendition of the Battle of Taladorn entirely new to him. Lysander had already given his own account of the engagement, a report that had been scrupulously honest in every detail from his audacious planetstrike, through to his repeated refusals of assistance. No, what concerned Pugh was the fact that Lysander showed no sign of remorse at the outcome his decisions had led to. The First Captain cared only that the Iron Warriors had been defeated and the world returned to the Imperial fold. Pugh found this attitude dangerous. There had been triumph at Taladorn, true enough, but bought with such needless sacrifice that another dozen such ‘victories’ would see the glorious traditions of the Imperial Fists ended altogether. Too often had the blood of Dorn guided his children down such a path. The Invaders, to name but one of the Imperial Fists’ successors, ever risked annihilation because of their stubborn refusal to back away from the unwinnable. Moreover, Pugh knew that many of the Imperial Fists’ captains looked to Lysander for example, rather than to himself, which could become problematic if the First Captain’s deeds went unchallenged. After several days of silent meditation and with heavy hearts, Pugh convened the Chapter Council to judge Lysander’s conduct.Thus did the other eight surviving Captains of the Imperial Fists convene in the shadow-shrouded Cloister of Remembrance, to determine if pride -- rather than duty -- had come to rule Lysander's actions. This was an old tradition, the captains affirming their obligations beneath the gazes of the honoured dead. Golden statues, each many times the height of a man, stood silent in the tiered alcoves that lay around the chamber’s circular perimeter. The flickering of the lumen in each alcove seeming to make expressions play upon the statues’ faces. Some alcoves were empty, awaiting a battle-brother to prove himself worthy of such remembrance. It had been a thousand years since the last statue was raised, and a millennium more could march by before the honour was again bestowed. There were no furnishings in the Cloister of Remembrance; no seats upon which the captains could rest and no council table to pound in support or detraction of a particular course. Each captain took his place at the room’s perimeter, whilst Pugh, as head of the council, stood in the centre, pacing to address each of his brothers as need arose.