Snakes of Ithaka

This is a WIP for an image based off of Dan Abnett's brothers of the snake. The Iron Snakes space marine chapter takes a flask of water from the ocean on their home world of Ithaka, and than when they return to their homeworld the return the water. It is one of the most sacred of their rituals. I am trying to convey that scene here.

"Priad crunched across the salt-crusted rock to the lip. Hookbeaks turned and banked in the rising spray, cutting through the brief rainbows the vapour made.
He looked back to his men: Kules, Xander, Pindor, Natus, Andromak with the snake-standard flapping between his shoulder blades, and Scyllon. The pilot and his assistant had also emerged from the drop-ship, kneeling a little way behind the main group to show their respects.
'In the name of the primarch who sired us, in the name of the Chapter which binds us, in the name of the God-Emperor who rules us, in the name of Ithaka... let this which was Ithaka's be Ithaka's again."