The empire's messenger finally arrived, dragging an ominous and gloomy silence with him.
The World Eater Kahn stood on the Conqueror, and the Conqueror's captain Lothal LS Lin stood beside him. They stood by the portholes, quietly looking at the huge and silent black ship docked in the Conqueror's port.
"Kahn, are they here to disband the legion?"
Salin asked softly, but it was an affirmative sentence.
Kahn let out an irritable grunt.
"When did you become so pessimistic, Salin?"
Salin turned her head and looked at Kahn. The determined captain's eyes were not very sure at the moment. She said,
"We haven't been able to contact him for a long time... Captain Rock's fleet has also lost contact."
"Two years and seventy days."
Kahn took over her words, he remembered them clearly.
The black monster outside the porthole was about to stop. Kahn put on his helmet. It was time for him to go.
"It won't take long, Salin. Keep commanding the astropaths to call our father. We will soon finish searching this area."
He said in a muffled voice,
"Let me see what the Empire is doing here in the World Eaters. Are they not satisfied with the progress of our war?"
Kahn left without hesitation, his footsteps hitting the metal floor with a clanging sound. Salin roared angrily behind him, and a high-pitched female voice echoed in the corridor.
"You and I both know the essence of this matter! Those are black ships! Black ships! You can't hide it from them. Don't deceive yourself, Kahn!"
Kahn ignored her and clenched his hand, causing the scar on his palm to ache slightly.
——————
If this were a [Warhammer 30k] game, Hades would have decided to put the Emperor and Malcador at the top of the list of the most deceptive NPCs.
Specifically, there is unclear task information, no task rewards, and no guide to passing the levels.
When Hades asked the Emperor and Malcador what exactly happened to the World Eaters, Malcador replied that he did not know and that Hades needed to figure it out.
When Hades asked them again if there was anything they needed to pay attention to or any tips, Malcador said that if they knew, then what was the point of having Hades.
Then Hades asked the soul a question,
"And how did the Imperium know that something was amiss with the World Eaters, Malcador?"
Malcador rolled his eyes and threw a thick stack of World Eaters battle reports to Hades.
Hades had previously glanced through some of the battle reports of the Twelve Legions, but when so many battle reports were compiled together at the same time, the key question emerged.
Hades was busy examining the documents.
"Angron... Angron has never personally fought in a single battle?!"
In the war reports of more than two years, the descriptions of Legion Commander Angron were all "Legion Commander Angron formulated a detailed and specific plan for this operation, which greatly reduced the casualties of the Legion and boosted the morale of the soldiers.]
Hades opened his mouth and remained speechless.
Even Vulkan or Lorgar, who claim to be the most peaceful and non-warlike, cannot do this. Two years, two years!
What's more, it was Angron, the Primarch known for his warmongering.
Malcador spoke calmly.
"Now you know why. If you don't have any questions, go away, Hades."
Hades raised his hand.
"Lao Ma, then why did you send me there? Give me a reason and I will leave your sight immediately."
"Through your follower Jin's monitoring of the Martian Tech Sergeants, we learned that the size of the World Eaters' think tank is shrinking rapidly, and some of their words have obvious tendencies - most likely related to Chaos."
"What? Wait—Jin is listening—"
"You should get out of my sight, Hades!"
So Hades sat on the black ship in a depressed mood, carrying the fragmented information he knew.
The black ship was very quiet, and little Herrera became serious and spoke little, so Hades had to shrink into his little room, listening sadly to the curses and screams coming from the Warp in his ears.
He began to think frantically about what the World Eaters were all about.
He thought of several possibilities, one of which was that Angron really had become a pacifist, or a fan of strategic deployment.
Hades shook his head.
Forget it, the chances of this not being as high as Mortarion swearing off smoking on the spot.
One possibility is that the Butcher's Nails did not allow Angron to continue fighting, but this possibility was also very small, because the Butcher's Nails would only stop torturing the implanted person when he was fighting. The long-term lack of blood would only make the Butcher's Nails penetrate deeper and deeper until the implanted person died completely.
Or... the World Eaters were trying to take the sting out of their Primarch, but something went wrong? This was a very possible possibility.
The Emperor also showed Hades the data of his previous surgery on Angron. The Butcher's Nails replaced part of Angron's brain and frontal lobe. The operation failed and Angron still wore the nails.
The Butcher's Nails were also very sensitive to psychic energy, which could be linked to the sudden reduction in the World Eaters' think tank as revealed by Malcador - but Hades could not figure out the specific process in between.
Maybe Angron fell into a coma from the nail extraction, and the World Eaters wished to keep this secret
Of course... there is another possibility, that Angron is really missing.
Hades remembered that in the original story, Angron had left the World Eaters without permission, and the Son of the Mountain hoped to find an opponent powerful enough to kill him so that he could gain true peace, rather than being trapped in the Twelfth Legion, a legion composed of his own crazy slaves.
But his 8th Company Captain Kahn had foresight. Kahn secretly installed a positioning transmitter in Angron's armor and finally found Angron.
There was quite a long time between Angron's disappearance and Kahn's recovery of the Primarch.
but…
Hades scratched his head in confusion. According to Malcador, it seemed that this time the World Eaters found Angron before the Empire did - had his vigilance at the time worked
If the World Eaters found Angron first, the Primarch wouldn't have been as extreme as in the novel, right
But if Angron was tortured by the Butcher's Nails and left the Legion to seek a place to die...
This has nothing to do with the Primarch being extremely non-extreme, it simply depends on the level of torture Angron is experiencing with the nails.
Hades took a deep breath.
Any more he thought about it would just be speculation, and he would not make any conclusions before getting concrete information.
The inexplicable scream in my ears disappeared, and there was a knock on the door. Hades stood up, turned on the black stone halo, and darkness enveloped him.
Outside the door, the fully armed little Herrera opened the door.
"We have arrived at our destination safely, Lord Pluto."
Hades sighed.
"Don't call me that, kid."
Little Herrera paused, she hugged the heavy bolter tightly to her chest,
"Please be careful with your words... It's all yours, Hades... Brother."
Let me eat and then write the next one
Thanks to the leader of JESTA0045!!! Pen refills!!! I will work hard on coding!
(End of this chapter)