Jotham Lentillus/sermon2

Lord Captain, officers, shipmaters, humans all... thank you, and thank you in particular, Lord Captain Macharial, for allowing us this day of rest from our labors and our cares.

Our God-Emperor commands our vigilance and our devoted attention to our duties. Survival here in the void makes its own iron demands on us. For so many of us to be absent from our stations is no small thing, and we should accept this pleasure without reflection.

The Lord Captain is the master of all aboard our ship, and to his designated servants, he entrusts the role of deciding which of the great machines that power Solo Drakban may be temporarily taken off line, that they may be serviced and any excessive wear dealt with. One might well believe that our own rest and relaxation comes to us as a similar dispensation, granted not by charity but out of a desire to maintain our crew as though we, too, were part of the great mechanism.

One would be seeing but a part of the true picture, however. We have seen what it means to think only of machines, never of life, and that is the Necron heresy. We have seen what it is to make war, with no thought of other pleasures, and that is the path of the foul greenskinned Ork. The God-Emperor commands us to slay the heretic and destroy the Xenos, for they partake not in Humanity. By a like measure, we must take care to celebrate our own Humanity, to take in all parts of life, for living as humans do pleases the God-Emperor of All.

Let us think, then, on the pleasures of conversation with our shipmates, of a leisurely meal at a well-set table, and of rest from our toils, and when we are done, we shall sing the Fourth Hymn of Praise.