In the Endurance's single medical room, two pharmacists were busy working at the medical table.
In the originally dim room, the dazzling white light illuminated the operating table. Around the operating table, infusion tubes were scattered and hung from the shelves. Different instruments were surrounding it, making a calm and regular ticking sound.
The tall figure of the Primarch sat silently on the chair in front of the operating table. At the request of the pharmacist, Mortarion took off his poison gas incense burner. His body was obviously thinner without the poison gas surrounding it.
A servitor belonging to the Primarch stood beside Mortarion.
"All right, sir."
An apothecary walked up to Mortarion and signaled to him that Hades would wake up in a moment.
Pharmacist Leo stared at Hades in silence. According to the pharmacist's calculations, the effect of the anesthetic was about to fade.
Hades' eyelids moved, and then he opened his eyes.
Leo gave Hades a "kind" smile.
Hey, boy, you're awake.
That’s right, he was the pharmacist who was thrown from behind.
Leo still feels a dull pain in his back. This kid has really strong hands.
At that time, he went to chase Hades to let Hades go back to rest, but he didn't expect that guy to come up and throw him to the back and then run away.
Ha ha.
Now you are lying here again.
Of course, in order to speed up Hades' recovery, he deliberately injected less painkillers, and when suturing, he touched a few unimportant nerves for the sake of muscle recovery.
The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Leo's fake smile. Hades took a breath and prepared to face the bloody storm.
However, Leo simply stared at him with murderous eyes and then stepped aside.
Seeing that Hades' condition was stable, the two pharmacists retreated to the equipment area separated by white cloth, leaving space for the legion commander and Hades to talk.
Hades knew why Leo didn't kill him.
Hades sat up, and as expected, he stared at Mortarion in silence.
Mortarion also lowered his head and said nothing. The Primarch placed his huge sickle Obituary flat on his knees as he sat. The huge chain blade gently touched the ground, making a light sound.
When the silence between the two had made the pharmacist next door feel uneasy, Hades spoke.
"Let me take a look at the data of the Death Guard's campaign first. I have been looking at the data about Galasper and haven't paid much attention to the campaign itself."
Mortarion snorted, raising his hand for the servitor beside him to hand over the dataslate.
Hades took the board and began to browse the data, including the preparations for the battle and the number of participating ships.
Well, it's pretty standard.
Hades crossed a page—
His eyes went dark. This number, this number, you told me it was a TM battle damage ratio?!
Hades fell backwards and almost died.
The instrument's shrill alarm sounded, and Mortarion started. He stood up, and his chair made a sharp sound on the ground.
The two pharmacists in the cubicle rushed out quickly and started a new round of rescue.
It took a while for Hades to recover.
"Don't get excited, your blood pressure was too high just now."
Leo glared at Hades as a warning, then packed up his equipment and left.
"good"
Hades responded weakly.
Then he looked back at Mortarion.
"I'm fine, sit down."
However, Mortarion remained standing. After a long silence, the Primarch asked in a dull tone,
"So we actually failed?"
Hades took a deep breath.
"No, this battle is a victory for the Death Guard."
But it was a pyrrhic victory.
If we exclude the exaggerated damage, the Battle of Galaspa can be called a classic battle - in terms of the early tactics of breaking through the galaxy defense.
When using a small number of troops to defeat a large number of enemies, being a step slower means death.
When a galaxy is filled with defensive weapons, in addition to the conventional encirclement and suppression bit by bit, a quick victory is another unconventional option.
The advantage is that you can concentrate your own forces, directly pry open the gap on the opposite side, and take the opponent's head directly.
If successful, the damage will be reduced compared to conventional methods.
But the disadvantage is that if you make a wrong move, you will lose the whole game.
As long as there is a moment of hesitation, or the enemy succeeds in obstructing for a moment, then the endless defensive fleet on the opposite side that floods the sea of stars will surround the charging Death Guard, slowly and unstoppably devouring everything.
Mortarion's tactics are typical of giving up the last resort and fighting with one's back against the wall.
More than half of the Death Guard's ships took part in this battle, along with a quarter of the legion's troops.
As the supreme commander, Mortarion was even in the vanguard of the assault.
Hades almost passed out from this attack.
If it was a battle that concerned the life and death of the entire legion, Hades would certainly say it was a good fight and a brilliant fight. When there was only one legion of troops, Mortarion's method of fighting was the best solution.
But this isn't it!
Mortarion could even choose not to attack the system!
The Imperial Army's original profile and judgment of this civilization was correct, that is, this kind of galaxy is not suitable for a single legion to attack.
The safest way to fight is to use three legions to encircle and suppress the enemy slowly.
This kind of fighting style will undoubtedly be a bloody meat grinder war, and casualties will definitely increase greatly, but because the casualties are shared by multiple legions, no single legion will bear too many casualties.
Mortarion's style of play was equivalent to taking "fewer" casualties (but still too much for a legion to bear) and betting that his legion would not be annihilated in this battle.
Obviously, the result was that his gamble paid off and the Death Guard won the battle.
But if you look at this battle from a more macro perspective, you will find that this is a losing business.
The purpose of war is to gain greater benefits for one's own side.
Putting the cart before the horse, even if you win, it will be boring.
Hades looked at Mortarion with a complicated expression. He suddenly remembered that when he was on Barbarus, Mortarion seemed to have never considered economic and livelihood issues such as post-war recovery.
It was only because the Death Guard were liberated quickly and without the oppression of the alien lords, the productivity and fertility of the Barbarus people were greatly liberated, so during the reign of Mortarion, the population and civilization of Barbarus ushered in a period of prosperity.
At most, Mortarion paid attention to the number of troops in training, but on Barbarus, people came from other places to join the army every day.
On Barbarus, Mortarion led the army for a simple reason: to liberate humanity from the rule of a tyrant.
It is obvious that the Primarch is thinking and doing the same thing now.
So there was the Battle of Galapagos.
But the Legion does not rely solely on its beliefs to make a living after all; it is a complex and huge interest group.
Belief and means are indispensable.
In the early stages, small organizations, such as the rebels on Barbarus, can use rapid increases to cover up their original tactical flaws, but when it comes to a large army, they must be thrifty.
After all, recruiting Space Marines and replenishing the fleet is much more troublesome than adding new population.
It seems that apart from Robert Guilliman, Horus and Fainus, the other Primarchs also seem to have a semi-neglectful attitude towards the Legion's management in this regard
Hades felt a deep sense of powerlessness enveloping him. He decided to give this young Primarch some scientific knowledge.
"Death, why did you choose to attack Galaspa?"
Mortarion blinked.
"The people here are under the rule of a tyrant, just like we were in Barbarus, so I promised them liberation."
".But I later found out that it wasn't the case."
Mortarion continued slowly, dragging a chair over and sitting down to continue.
"Hades, do you know what the Emperor said to me when I first met him?"
"?"
Hades really didn't know.
"He said I would be his scythe to free the entire galaxy from tyranny."
“He told me that there were countless human civilizations oppressed by tyrants, and I was the liberator he created.”
"That's why I chose to accept the Legion he offered me."
Hades was silent. He suddenly realized something.
Not all Primarchs initially willingly served the Emperor's Great Crusade.
Apart from those Primarchs who were initially conquered by the Emperor's charisma, the Emperor made promises to others.
Some Primarchs wished for glory, and the Emperor promised glory; some Primarchs wished for favoritism, and the Emperor promised favoritism; some Primarchs wished for peace, and the Emperor promised peace.
To Mortarion, the Emperor promised liberation.
But it is obvious that the things the Emperor promised were too vague or just temporary promises.
Once the Primarch had truly taken over the Legion and was tied to the chariot of the Imperium, there was no turning back.
The Primarchs can certainly use the Legion to try to realize their own ideas and original promises. In fact, every Primarch now does so.
As long as the empire's plan is completed and the red lines are not crossed, the emperor naturally doesn't care about these things.
So in a sense, for example, Robert Guilliman’s infrastructure construction was only because some of his beliefs were related to it, and it just happened to be in line with the direction of building the legion.
Um.
Hades suddenly realized, so Mortarion actually knew what he wanted to say, but now he was threatening him with a burden? !
Mortarion had already noticed that there was a deviation between what the Emperor said at that time and what the Empire was asking him to do now.
Ultimately, the key point is the different perspectives.
Hades naturally hopes to develop the Death Guard to deal with the bloody storm that is about to come.
Mortarion, on the other hand, hopes to fulfill his original promise and overthrow all tyranny, which takes priority over legion building.
Hades thought about it, then he spoke carefully,
"Death, now that the Legion has completed its mission of liberation and Galaspar's tyranny has been overthrown, what do you want to do next?"
Mortarion was silent.
He never thought about it.
When he first saw Galaspar, he saw the scene of the tyrant's decapitation, and he saw the tyrant's order collapse under the attack of the Death Guard.
But he never imagined how a new order would be formed after the killing and destruction.
In Babarus, people simply followed him and order was established spontaneously.
Hades was also speechless. Although Mortarion kept claiming to be liberated, he really didn't want anything else.
".I thought the Empire would send someone to take over the subsequent construction."
Hades spoke,
"Obviously, given the current size of the empire and the level of chaos in frontline management, they have no choice but to break their promise."
Mortarion nodded.
"Except for the tax department."
He added quietly,
"Why do you wish to overthrow tyranny, God of Death?"
Hades continued to persuade, while the Primarch opposite him fell into a new round of silence.
“Oppression is wrong. The oppressed have no freedom and life of their own.”
This was the first thing Mortarion learned under Kna'kre's oppression.
“But in addition to oppression, in a chaotic and disordered world, people generally cannot obtain true freedom and their own lives.”
Hades said.
"So we can't just overthrow the tyranny. In order to achieve your goal, we also need to rebuild."
"And reconstruction requires more manpower and more Death Guards."
"We can't lose so many warriors in one battle, because we still need to liberate other civilizations."
“.”
"You are right."
Mortarion muttered listlessly,
"I may be too obsessed with liberation itself."
You cannot replace one tyranny with another, Vulkan's words kept echoing in Mortarion's ears.
“Liberation itself is not a bad thing.”
Hades laughed, he finally pulled the Primarch back!
Strike while the iron is hot—
"It's a good opportunity to include Galasper in the Death Guard's recruitment planets. I checked the official documents before, and the conditions of the recruitment planets and post-war conditions just meet the Empire's tax exemption conditions. Let's submit the tax exemption application first, and then discuss the construction in detail."
Mortarion slowly opened the channel communication.
"Galo, submit Galasper's tax exemption application to the Empire."
Without giving the other party a chance to speak, Mortarion quickly closed the channel again.
Hades opposite him was screaming silently. This kind of leadership attitude in assigning tasks almost triggered the PTSD of the overworked person.
You can't treat your subordinates like this!
"Okay, I did as you said."
Mortarion spoke, and the Primarch, having sorted out his thoughts, instantly returned to his previous state.
"Galasper will be the next Death Guard recruiting site."
"Now, let's talk about why you missed the Battle of Galaspa."
"Although your Mechanicus assistant has already said it once, I don't mind hearing it again."
!
"So. That's it."
Hades, with the death glare of the god of death in his eyes, carefully recounted what happened on that planet.
"The Eldar."
Mortarion chewed on the blasphemous words. Well, he remembered them.
Since Mortarion still had a lot of things to do, Hades briefly talked about his ideas for the construction of Galasper.
Then Hades suddenly remembered and asked about the recruitment of Death Guard.
However, what Hades didn't know was that this bite, in a sense, saved the entire Death Guard.
"Oh, I sent Carastiphon back to recruit soldiers. It was also his initiative that he asked for it."
Aaaaaaahhhh!!!
Never mind Galaspa, Barbarus is about to be robbed!!!
Is this Luther's script?!
"Go back to Barbarus."
Hades said weakly,
"Right away, now, immediately."
After Mortarion left,
The two pharmacists behind the white cloth looked at each other silently, and understood the unspoken words in each other's eyes.
Just had a conversation.
Why do they think Hades is the one who makes the decision
Thank you for subscribing, happy reading (_)
(End of this chapter)