Every action has consequences and the greater act the greater the consequence. Imprisoned in a cell within the Fortress of Hera, Uriel Ventris has time to reflect upon the loss of his battle brothers before facing the judgement of his peers.

Writer’s Commentary

Again, this was a linking story between two of the Ultramarines novels – this time between Warriors of Ultramar and Dead Sky, Black Sun. At the end of Warriors of Ultramar, I purposely killed off a lot of the 4th Company since I didn’t want to retreat the same ground I had with the first two novels…I’d burned my bridges so I had to do something different with the third Ultramarines book. In this story, Uriel’s on trial for his life with a charge of breaking faith with the Codex Astartes, the holy tome of the Ultramarines. It was also an experiment to see if I could write a story that didn’t have any combat or people hitting each other with chainswords and was still exciting. It’s a story that’s largely dialogue, but I think still packs a punch in the drama stakes.