The lush green mist settled at her ankles. She lifted her feet and watched the gas hang on her shoes and then drip down reluctantly.
These weapons were personally formulated by Lord Mortarion. These weapons do not corrode the equipment of the Death Guard, but will cause their enemies to perish in suffocating pain.
As a member of the Cerberus Hunting Team, this was her first time to experience a real battlefield. Explosions, impacts, sticky blood, the roars of aliens, her mind was dizzy, but as a gunner of a Cerberus tank, her hands never stopped moving. Sweat dripped down her gas mask. Her eyes were itchy. She could only shake her head hard, desperately trying to open her eyes, then put the barrel of the gun against the alien's throat and fire, fire!
Viscous liquid spurted from the barrel, making a hissing sound. Through the narrow sight, she saw the tall beasts rotting under the shells, flesh and blood dripping, and the Death Guard following behind the Hellhounds harvested its head without hesitation. This was hell, and they created hell.
She mechanically repeated the movements taught by the technical masters on the training ground. When the order to "rest" was given, she still leaned her head against the sight like a quail, nervously waiting for orders.
[Come out for some fresh air, little ones, you're doing great.]
The technical sergeant on the outside of the Cerberus knocked on their vehicle with a wrench, and the muffled thuds echoed along the pipes and metal. After confirming that the war was over and they could leave the vehicle, several crew members got out. Because of the small space in the vehicle, she found that her legs could not stop shaking, her muscles were stiff, and her protective suit was full of sweat.
[25, good, you helped kill at least 25 aliens, and your poison box consumed the most.]
The technical sergeant picked them up like chickens, and began to check the vehicles. To her relief, except for the commander, the slightly crazy old man, everyone else was as miserable as she was. They huddled together, leaning on the Hellhound, listening to the roar of the technical sergeant's electric drill.
Through the thick protective clothing, the breeze from the strange planet touched them. She looked up and saw some cold white dots falling from the sky. She had never seen this before. There had never been such a scene in her hometown.
She looked into the distance, the corpses of the enemies were lying quietly on the ground and rotting, sporadic gunshots could be heard from the depths of the fog from time to time, the reassuring footsteps of the Death Guard could be heard faintly, she looked at all this as if waking up from a dream, they did it together, they did it, "Praise the Lord of Death." She murmured to herself, and at the same time couldn't stop stroking her hellhound companion behind her.
The solid touch of this huge thing made her feel at ease. A full sense of honor rose up in her chest. She suddenly remembered the bits and pieces of conversation during the previous training and started to speak again with a guilty conscience, "Praise the Lord of Death, praise the King of the Underworld."
Death gave them salvation, and Hades granted them power. Without Death and Hades, as a former slave of Galapagos, she would never be standing here. Perhaps she would die on the battlefield of an alien planet, but the process of fighting with the army had made her die without regrets. Life and death were given value, and they were no longer corpses in Galapagos' sewage river.
The name and belief themselves have magical power. When she silently recited the name of Pluto, she looked towards the deepest part of the battlefield intentionally or unintentionally. A feeling of disgust surged up like an electric shock, and then quickly dissipated. She seemed to see the tall figure in the mist. She blinked in confusion, but everything disappeared again.
The Wandering Knights traveled quietly in the fog. In the places where the intensity of the battlefield was the highest, where the soil was moistened by blood and looked like farmland in early spring, Hades silently examined the corpses.
No and not at all.
Finally, Hades shook his head and signaled the two Wandering Soul Knights to leave. The irrelevant Death Guards and Cerberus were all at the edge of the battlefield and could not spy on their actions.
[No signs of psychic corrosion were found.]
There was a brief silence on the other end of the channel.
[Hades, return to the ship now. The others have been dispatched along this route.]
[Mortarion, were there any traces of psychic energy in your battle with the enemy ships? ]
[No, in fact, this race has almost no knowledge and control over psychic energy. They can only use Mandeville points for the most basic navigation.]
The two fell silent at the same time, and finally Hades spoke hesitantly,
[If they are not aliens, we will have to look for the answer from the humans in this galaxy.]
Mortarion neighed like a sigh,
[This is why I hate people who use psychic powers so much.]
The Primarch looked up at the giant map above the command room. The Just galaxy was clearly visible and a dazzling fleet battle was underway.
But the good news is that because the enemy underestimated the speed and scale of the Empire's support, the Death Guard has successfully captured the two outermost planets in the galaxy and successfully gained control of Mandeville Point.
Apart from the garrison troops previously deployed outside the galaxy, they did not encounter fierce resistance from the enemy. The main force of Memanik was still attacking the main star of Just instead of immediately turning around to face the Death Guards.
The enemy wants to bite off Ruste and then turn around to fight back. If they turn around now, they will face the fate of being attacked by both the Death Guard and the Mechanicus. With a forge main star behind them, the Mechanical Sages can quickly recover their combat power, and they will be more difficult to deal with then.
Therefore, the aliens chose to take over the main forging star first. The powerful productivity of the main forging star will also help their counterattack.
The closer we get to Just Prime, the more difficult it will be for the opposing fleet to break through.
Mortarion calculated that if Just Prime was lost, the war situation would deteriorate further.
Although the Primarch was indifferent to these mechanical sages who worshipped gods casually, they did need a fleet now, a fleet that could reinforce the Prime of Just. The Mechanicum on Just was crumbling, and it was indeed a miracle that they could hold on until now.
As Mortarion was thinking, the door of the command room behind him opened and Hades walked in quickly, with tiny crystals of poison gas on his armor.
Hades took off his helmet and looked at the screen intently. After a moment, he spoke.
"We need to support Just Prime."
Mortarion raised his hand, interrupting Hades' words. Hades looked at him in confusion.
"Who, in your opinion, will lead this fleet?"
"I."
Hades answered without hesitation, "This fleet needs capable people, and among these people, I have the deepest understanding of the Mechanicus."
Mortarion was silent for a moment.
"That's assuming we don't encounter that little boat."
Hades was stuck. He lowered his head and thought about it in annoyance. Indeed, the Warp's panoramic view was still there, but Rust could not be lost. Hades did not think that Garro and Vorcus were capable of fighting together with the Mechanicus. Any tactical mistake caused by misunderstanding between the two sides would be fatal. Those oil men might even deliberately sell out the Death Guard for victory. This situation was not uncommon.
"There are now three Wandering Knights, two hundred and thirty-two Untouchables, and fifty-seven Librarians on the Endurance. Command is given to you. This is enough for you, Mortarion."
Even in the most extreme case, if all the Untouchables were gathered together and then killed, the anti-psychic field emitted by the Untouchables before their death would be enough for any creature in the Warp to withstand, and they would be immediately expelled back to the Warp.
Hades established the team of Untouchables, firstly to cooperate with his operations, and secondly to allow the Legion to have a standing force so that it cannot always rely on him. Even though Hades' abilities are now at the supermodel level, now that the Great Rebellion has not yet begun, the Death Guard, an Untouchable, can be regarded as T1 level.
As long as the Endurance does not actively jump into the warp, suddenly fall ill and enter the warp turbulence, and run around while killing all the astropaths on the ship, this team of untouchables is enough to deal with the warp creatures in the physical world.
By the way, the example just given was the tragic experience of how the Death Guard ambushed underground and then were corrupted in the original book.
As for why it's so fucked up. Don't ask. The answer is that Karastyphon was extremely skilled in fooling Mortarion, but now Mortarion would not make such a stupid mistake. The Primarch was deeply aware of the dangers of the Warp. Mortarion was reluctant to sail into the Warp, let alone let the fleet run around in the Warp.
We still have to believe in the barriers of the physical world. In addition to advance design, places with altars, such as the Endurance, will not be easily corroded by the subspace.
Oh, except for the time when Hades committed suicide, ahem, it was an unexpected accident.
Moreover, Hades can feel that the physical barriers outside the Just galaxy are not weak. On the contrary, the physical barriers here can be called healthy. But in the depths of this galaxy, it is hard to say for Hades, the main star of Just. Generally speaking, the higher the intensity of death, the more depressed people's spirits are, and the more likely the subspace is to distort the real world.
Mortarion glanced at Hades, then he began to deploy his fleet.
"Your judgment is that nothing will happen to the Endurance?"
Hades said hesitantly, "It's hard to say, but the subspace connection here is not strong."
Mortarion paused for a moment.
"Then you go, Hades."
Then Mortarion whispered slowly,
"Sometimes I really doubt whether you are from the Mechanicus or the Death Guard. Perhaps it was a wrong decision to allow you to go to Mars."
Hades said in horror, "I am a member of the Death Guard. Please believe me, Mortarion. You see, I don't care much about the Mechanicus."
But what Hades could think of was the scene of being surrounded by the Mechanical Sages of the Mint-cast satellites.
Mortarion had a look of disgust on his face, saying "you are kidding me", and immediately issued an expulsion order.
"The Fourth Knight is ready. All of them are soldiers from the Seventh Company. Hades, you can take over. After three Terra hours, we will cover you to go in."
"If you need the forces of the Zeroth Company, take them with you."
Hades waved his hand, "You need them more than I do, Mortarion. Let them ensure the stability of the main fleet."
"good."
Mortarion did not shirk his responsibility. "Commander Hades, I order you to lead the Seventh Company to support Just Prime. All authority over the Seventh Company, the Fourth Knight, and its affiliated ships is open to you. Act according to the situation and capture them."
Hades was already walking quickly toward the door. He raised his scythe and gave a simple salute as a response to Mortarion.
". Make sure you come back alive."
Thank you for your concern... I'm fine! I'm just a little busy at the end of the semester, plus the fragile and unhealthy work and rest schedule of writers, so I may have to update once every two weeks recently, but if the inspiration comes, I will try to write more! _(:з」∠)_
There will definitely be a lot of updates during the summer vacation, definitely, definitely, definitely. I'm counting, I owe four updates.
Thank you for subscribing, happy reading ('ω')
(End of this chapter)