Hades skillfully picked up a fruit from the basket in front of him and chatted with Abaddon in a relaxed and comfortable manner.
Once again, the way the Luna Wolves and Ultramarines entertain their guests is the best!
In addition to the two people sitting on the sofa and chatting, next to Abaddon was Seganus who was reading the battle report. On the other side, Sevatar leaned against the wall aimlessly, closing his eyes and resting silently.
Although everyone present can sense Sevatar's vigilance, in fact, at their stage, constant vigilance is a necessity for survival.
Hades also kept his Black Domain active at a low concentration, which covered the entire room, including part of the long corridor outside.
These people have little psychic potential, except Sevatar, but the Prince of Crows has been suppressing his psychic powers, so Hades is not sure whether he is aware of Hades's difference.
"How do you think this battle will go, Hades?"
Abaddon spoke casually,
"It's just a hypothesis. If it were you, how would you fight?"
Seganus raised his eyes from the battle report, glanced at Ezekiel, and then shifted his gaze back to the pile of information.
Hades was about to grab some food.
For some reason, he always felt something was wrong, but he couldn't tell why. Maybe it was because the armor cleaner used by Sevatar was not the same type as theirs
"Well, my words."
Hades glanced casually at the map on the table.
"This civilization is highly unified, and they make good use of all the resources on this planet."
Hades took a bite of the fruit and muttered,
"Burn down their farmland and granaries."
"What?"
Abaddon asked doubtfully.
"The city's food supply relies on the combined farmland of the two continental plates. You see, they use a large area of the plain to plant crops to ensure the supply of basic food."
"Information shows that they are about to enter the harvest season, and their reserves should be at a lower level now."
Hades said, and then drew a circle on the map with his hand, which was the part marked as "agricultural land".
"Compared to key building complexes, the protection of farmland is more fragile and difficult to achieve, and the military cannot always guard against malicious attacks from the outside world."
Hades continued to eat the fruit.
"We burned everything directly, igniting a raging fire that covered half of the continent. At the same time, we kept an eye on their attempts to restore farmland and sent out small groups of troops to harass them."
"Then that's it. Leave one company to guard this planet, and they will surrender automatically. If they don't negotiate peace with the Empire and buy the food they need to survive, nine-tenths of them will die first."
Abaddon opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
Cyganus opened his mouth,
"If we don't restore arable land, even if there are reserves, they will be quickly consumed by the huge population. This is indeed a way of thinking."
Hades waved his hand.
"This is a common problem of civilizations that have unified the entire planet. There has been no civil war for a long time. The entire planet is planned and managed. Naturally, basic crops are planted on the most fertile and mechanized plains, and only cash crops and seasonal plants are planted near population centers."
“They didn’t consider what would happen if their foundation fields were burned.”
Hades whispered, but this is rather unsolvable, because the large-scale construction, mechanization and industrialization of agriculture will inevitably lead to it being - very easy to be destroyed.
The transportation, preservation, plundering, and destruction of survival supplies have always been an important part of war, sometimes even more important than guns and bullets themselves.
If it was the army itself, it would be fine. The soldiers knew how to survive in an emergency situation. But if it was civilians, and there was no sign of future supply recovery,
Hades silently swallowed the fruit core in his mouth. The hive was okay. This highly developed human civilization probably had never experienced such hardship.
In the case of material shortages, as long as the empire maintains an attitude of being ready to negotiate peace at any time, their own noble position will be automatically collapsed.
Hades looked up boredly, and then saw Abaddon staring at him.
"What's wrong?"
"I was thinking," Abaddon began slowly, "that we could give higher priority to agricultural land later."
Hades spread his hands.
"It's all fine, but I think it's highly unlikely that anyone would use this trick. It's an unconventional technique, and it's not that useful."
"I was just kidding."
Although the complicated look in Abaddon's eyes told Hades that his casual remark was probably taken seriously.
So Hades put away his casual expression and looked back at Abaddon in silence.
"I was just kidding."
Hades said word by word.
Before Abaddon could react, Seganus' voice rang out.
"Ezekiel, Father is calling us."
Hades blinked and looked away. He smiled casually.
"Get to work, both of you. I'll see you on the battlefield."
The two Moon Wolves solemnly said goodbye to Hades and Sevatar, and soon, apart from the servitors, the only people left in the conference room were Mortarion's death shroud and Curze's black-armored guards.
Hades couldn't quite distinguish the decorations on the armor of the Night Lords, and except for Sevatar, everyone else wore a helmet, which made him unsure whether Shang or Shen was among the group of bats.
Hades thought about it.
"Won't you sit down for a moment, cousin?"
Sevatar opened his eyes, his gaze stayed on the sofa for a few seconds, Hades smiled at him,
"This is the first time our two legions are working together. We should get to know each other so that we can fight together when the time comes."
So Sevatar also sat down casually, but compared to Hades who had already regarded the Moon Wolf Reception Room as his own home, he was obviously more cautious.
The closer he got, the stronger the vague feeling of discomfort became. Sevatar concealed this detail with an expressionless face.
"Hades, Commander of the Death Guard."
"Captain of the Night Lords, Sevatar."
Hades smiled slyly.
"You have been listening just now, cousin, so if it were you, how would you fight this battle?"
Sevasta paused.
“I just follow orders, I don’t create it.”
"Okay, what if it's the Night Lords? I just want to understand your fighting style."
"For example, the Death Guard. If Lord Horus does not forbid it, we may use some inhalation weapons, so I will remind you all to wear helmets, and it is best to change to a better respirator."
“There are always recruits who don’t like wearing helmets.”
There was some relief in Sevatar's voice.
"I thought you would like to use phosphide weapons to burn farmland. It's a good idea."
"In fact, we also use phosphide weapons, you know," Hades lowered his voice, "but under the nose of Horus, we will most likely be banned."
"They like to bind themselves by kindness."
Sevatar crossed his arms and quipped, "You're just telling me this, my cousin? Aren't you worried that we might be the kind ones, too?"
Hades silently pointed to the skulls strung together on Sevatar's armor.
"At least the Ultramarines won't like using them for decoration."
They looked at each other, and then Sevatar laughed. He seemed to remember something funny.
"Excuse me, but I am really impressed by your way of greeting."
Hades looked at the fruit basket again indifferently, and Sevatar saw that he really liked the fruit basket.
Sevatar has rarely seen such a straightforward person. In the Night Lords, such a person will not live long.
Hades continued,
"This is necessary. If we don't make it clear before the war, those people will come running in the middle of the war and angrily ask us why we use these weapons."
"My response to that is, they didn't say it couldn't be used."
Hades' words reminded Sevatar of some of the previous cooperation between the Night Lords and other legions. In the negotiations with other legions, their father had always been passive, which forced them to often face the rebukes of other primarchs on the battlefield.
It's like this almost every time.
And this time.
"We basically don't use weapons that will affect friendly forces," Sevatar suddenly said.
Hades gave a knowing smile, "So what will you use?"
“We use fear.”
Sevatar said, "Let fear break down the barriers in people's hearts, and let them realize that the other side of submission is the bottomless abyss of fear."
Hades stared at him, as if he knew something, but Sevatar did not read anger, disgust or other angry emotions in his eyes. Hades spoke calmly,
"I think I know why you're not one of the Mercy ones."
"But the Death Guard are not merciful. If you are determined to use your tactics, tell us. The Death Guard may be able to assist or help you."
This was completely, completely beyond Sevatar's expectations, this kind of relationship between the legions.
He wanted to continue asking, but he didn't open his mouth. It would be impolite to ask further. Anyone who made such a promise was either a fool or someone who really had a say in the legion.
But beyond that, what shocked him even more was Hades's promise to the Night Lords. It was too much, and he began to doubt Hades' intentions.
Hades still had that calm yet indifferent expression, and every few seconds, his eyes would move towards the fruit basket.
He still needed to test, Sevatar smiled, although the smile of the Prince of Crows looked sinister, he reached out and took a fruit from the fruit basket -
Very full and attractive in color, just like the hypocritical justice of Moon Wolf himself.
"Thank you for your kindness, cousin."
Hades smiled with joy. If Sevatar took it, then he could. Hades naturally stretched out his hand and said polite words.
"No, we all fight for the Empire—"
Hades' pupils shrank instantly. In the dark area, a blazing flame was rapidly approaching -
He stood up subconsciously, picked up the obituary, and compressed the black area—
"run-"
No, too fast, too fast!
At the last moment, the figure almost arrived, as if teleporting.
"cough."
Hades coughed up blood.
He lowered his head tremblingly and saw a power claw piercing through his chest, with a heart still beating.
[What kind of monster are you?! Stay away from Sai! ! ! !]
A piercing sound exploded behind my ears, and a sharp pain came from my neck.
Hades' eyes went dark.
The next second, everything went dark before everyone’s eyes.
Screams erupted! Curze screamed and threw Sevatar away, trying to escape at an incredible speed—
Hades trembled, and used all his strength to make a little light appear in front of him again. No, the black domain cannot explode here. He can't.
Hades gritted his teeth and tried to compress the black domain around himself. He had already seen the quickly fleeing Coze raising his gun. Damn it, this is fucking—
[Hades!!!!]
Mortarion's voice directly tore everyone's eardrums, and the next moment, the Lord of Death's scythe tore through the sky and rushed straight towards Konrad Curze -
Horus, who met Abaddon and Seganus in the reception hall, showed a desperate expression.
Just think of it as yesterday.
7k words updated today,
4/14
(End of this chapter)