"It will take about a month to wipe out the remaining aliens in the Octarius star region."
The soft light flickered dimly, illuminating the private room. Voices could be heard from inside the room, but outside, there was an uproar, with blood and broken bones flying everywhere.
"Then we'll go straight to Macragge."
Ancient Roman floral decorations were engraved on the black armor, flashing golden light as the owner moved.
Buzz dipped his fingertips into the wine and tapped it lightly on the table, leaving a small wine pit.
"Although I have little contact with Calgar, he, the Ultramarines, must do me this favor."
Hades said nothing, raised his glass, and slowly tasted the wine.
Hard to drink.
"We will stay in Macragge for more than ten days, and wait for the parameters of his slingshot to be adjusted, and then we will head directly to the Maelstrom."
"The Great Whirlpool has been a place of psychic chaos for thousands of years. The Death Guard and Faos have supported the Astral Claws Chapter here. The current Chapter Master, Lutf Huron, is also an old hand at playing both sides. However, due to the special geographical location, the Empire has turned a blind eye and will not care about it for now."
"You want to pull Huron over?"
Hades asked suddenly, looking at Buzz without blinking.
Huron... In the original novel, he is a warrior sent by the Empire to guard the Great Whirlpool.
To sum up, this person is extremely ambitious, capable, rules with an iron fist, and is disloyal to the empire.
After not paying taxes for a long time, Huron finally broke up with the Empire. He led the remaining Astral Claws and renamed them the Red Corsairs. He decisively rebelled against the Empire, established his own faction, hid in the Maelstrom and became a force among the rebellious Space Marines.
In the original novel, the Red Corsair Huron was also a Space Marine who was instructed by the Tzeentchian Fateweaver to defeat and imprison the Primarch Guilliman.
Now, Huron is still sent by the Empire to guard the Great Whirlpool - but not to prevent chaos, but to prevent the Faos sages who emerge from the Great Whirlpool from time to time.
It turns out that this guy is having an affair with Faos.
Buzz paused.
"Huron is a very capable person. I do have this idea—"
"But he has great personal ambitions," Buzz said cautiously, "and his cooperation with the Death Guard and Phaos is also two-faced, maneuvering between the Empire and Phaos."
…
"You can make money on both ends, right?"
Hades said, picking up a piece of sticky rice cake dotted with indigo petals and eating it,
“He has a good balance.”
Buzz replied, "Although some of these methods do displease Death Guard Phaos..."
"But I'm back," Hades said slowly, "The balance has been broken. Let's see where his sincerity lies - if not, then destroy him or imprison him in Phaos."
Huron himself is neither black nor white, and is not a good person.
The last stop of Hades's journey was Terra. As an important forge world under Hades, the reappearance of Phaos was inevitable. Then, for the Empire, the position of the Star Claws sent to guard the Maelstrom was very awkward.
There is no need for Hades to make things difficult for himself. If he senses that something is wrong with Huron, he will just destroy him.
If Huron sincerely follows the Death Guard and Hades... Huron is a talented person with strong political skills...
Hades believes it is necessary to take advantage of some talents.
Before Hades fell asleep, all he could lead was the Order of Silence. The Soulless were few in number, and the order was even smaller, so Hades and two or three deputies were enough.
When he was in the Death Guard, there was also a Primarch in charge, as well as countless Death Guard management.
No matter what, the management tree can only extend two or three branches downwards at most.
But now, Hades has to find talent like Buzz Berra.
"Then we will stay in the Maelstrom for about a month."
Buz paused, then continued, "If you want to clear out the Star Claws, it will take about a month at most."
Hades poured himself another glass of black water.
"Perhaps it will be smoother," he said calmly. "I bet that the sages in Faos will provide key technical support to Astral Claws - the kind with backend management authority in Faos."
Buzz's expression changed.
"Huron may not use it," he said, "it..."
"That depends on the acting skills of the sages. Let's skip Phaos for now. What if we think too badly of him?"
Buzz nodded and continued,
"The Maelstrom will stay for a month, and then it will be Nuceria. I have a feeling the World Eaters will be more straightforward than the Ultramarines, so a week should be more than enough."
Hades nodded. He thought of Angron, the Lord of Red Sand, who used to do things in a decisive manner. It seemed that this had a profound impact on his descendants.
I just don't know how Angron is doing now.
"Then we'll go to Terra."
Hades said, the wine in the cup ripples,
"The largest garrison in the Solar Segmentum is the Imperial Fists?"
Buzz nodded. "Don't worry about that... The Pale Lord once saved Lord Dorne. They still owe him this favor. It's time for them to repay it."
Hades knew this; Blake had told him.
Hades was silent for a moment. Why did he feel that after waking up, the Empire was full of favors from the Death Guard
Mortarion has done a lot in the past ten thousand years.
Hades took another sip of his wine in silence.
For example, if this extremely unpalatable wine recipe is passed down, it will bring disaster to the world and leave a bad reputation for eternity.
"… and the Custodians,"
Hades pondered, "As long as the Lord of Mankind still remembers me and the Imperial Guards still obey the Emperor's command, the Imperial Guards stationed in the Solar Segment will... not to say cooperate, but at least will never hinder our actions."
“That’s good news,”
Buzz said, frowning awkwardly as if he remembered something. "I've dealt with the Custodians before, and they are generally... difficult to understand."
"understand,"
Hades said, "I understand you. I've dealt with the Custodes before, too. They don't do their job—they just think about how to shut me up all day long."
…
Buz was silent. He looked at Hades who was unconscious and sighed while pouring wine. Buz thought that on this matter, he might reach a rare consensus with the Imperial Guards.
Sometimes, necessary silence can maintain a sense of mystery and respect that people imagine
As for Hades, he was wondering what happened to Charon and the others in the end.
Probably his soul has returned to the Golden Throne.
Let's have another drink.
"If the Custodians don't come to stop them," Hades held his glass and listened to Buzz's estimate, "then the High Lords won't be able to hold out for long - their remaining forces include the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Navy, the Assassins, the Skitarii, the Forge World's army, the self-armed merchant fleet, the Psychic Forces..."
"But they are not monolithic,"
Hades said,
"Not only within the High Lords, but also in the armies under the High Lords, there is disunity."
Buzz nodded. He picked up a cake, stood it up, and pushed it gently.
Collapsed with a loud noise.
"The moment we lead our army back to Terra, they will have no choice but to give up power."
Buzz picked up the cake and said as he bit it,
"Hit a few, leave a few alone, and take a few in."
Hades took over the conversation and picked up a piece of cake to eat.
"I'll have to trouble you to decide who should live and die, Boots."
In this regard, no one is more suitable than Buzz, who once served as the regent of the empire. Buzz can see through most of the twists and turns of Terra's central politics, which is enough.
Buzz knew this very well. This time, Mingzi did not shirk his responsibility, but nodded seriously.
Then…
Hades pondered, if everything went well, after taking over the Empire, the first thing to do was to unite and reorganize the Mechanicus -
The loose form of the Mechanicus must be changed. If those sages have the spare time and energy to fight an internal holy war, it would be better to send them all out to build the empire.
It is necessary to develop technology and productivity. Now Hades can help technological development avoid interference from Tzeentch and avoid interference from the Star Gods - so there is no need to keep the sages secret.
Just this one thing alone was enough for Hades to worry about.
He thought that some of his past memories might be useless. In the original plot, it was Guilliman who entered Terra, but now it was his turn.
In the plot where Guilliman entered Terra, Chaos did make an appearance.
But for some reason, Hades felt that Chaos would not bother him.
Unless there is a fierce battle, no matter how many troops Chaos sends, they will be like mud entering the sea and disappear in an instant.
Hades can say this. Without mentioning anything else, his special attack has been maxed out when it comes to fighting chaos.
But it seemed unlikely that Chaos would bother him - after all, there was Mortarion in the Warp, destroying and killing people.
Thinking about it this way, Mortarion actually shared a large part of Hades' pressure. Whether it was the current layout of the empire or chaos, Mortarion definitely contributed.
Hades was thinking about whether to contact the Death Guard in the subspace, but the message left by Karas was "Don't worry..."
Hades decided that if the Death Guard did not notify him, he would ask the Grey Knights after he arrived on Terra and stabilized the situation.
He also had to remember Magnus.
The Magnus Stone on Hades' waist was dim, and it looked like Magnus needed to rest for a while.
After all, making him follow Hades every day... This is probably another kind of torture for the psychic primarch.
"How is the recent war situation in the Empire? Are there any larger battlefields?"
Hades asked again, and Buzz shook his head.
"Except for the Tyranid calamity that Macragge just suffered, there is no war that is powerful enough to shake the situation in the Empire. It may also be like the Octares Sector, which Terra does not take seriously."
Chaos, Tyranids, Greenskins, Eldar, Necrons, Tau... For the current Empire, the higher threats are Chaos, Tyranids and Necrons.
Chaos is an old rival. Currently, Mortarion is causing chaos in the Warp, and with Hades in charge, at least in the real universe, he can compete with Chaos.
As for Tyrone, Octarius and the Five Hundred Star Domain have just wiped out two large tentacles. They will not make a comeback in the short term, but now we must start to pay attention to Tyrone and wipe out the bugs as much as possible in the early stage.
But in the long run, as Hades knows, the Tyranids that have come to the galaxy now are just a small part of the huge swarm. If the human empire hopes to survive in the vast Zerg hive, it must develop technology that can efficiently destroy the Tyranids.
After all, no matter how much the Tyrannosaurus evolves, it is still based on flesh and blood. When it eats planets, it only eats the surface, not the stars.
Causal weapons, time-reversing weapons, genetic viruses... these are all technologies that humans once possessed, and there will always be some that can be used to deal with Tyranids.
If that doesn't work, there are still other evil ways like star gods and subspace.
As for the Necrons—
If the Silent King from outside the galaxy returns and hopes to reunite the galaxy, this may be a very severe test that humanity will soon face.
And as far as Hades knows, the current time point is very close to the timeline of the return of the Silent King in the original work.
It is not known whether the butterfly effect caused by Hades will interfere with the Necrons.
But when it comes to the Necrons... Hades has other ideas.
The Necron Dynasty was awakened by the "alarm clock" set by the Silent King ten thousand years ago, such as the collision of two stars, using the impact of the explosion to awaken the Necron Dynasty.
That means, could Hades dismantle all these alarm clocks in advance
A sleeping Necron is a good Necron.
The revival of a dynasty takes time. Even if the Silent King takes the initiative to awaken the sleeping dynasties later, it will still take his energy and time.
This part can be assigned to the sages later.
So - to put it bluntly, we must quickly enter Terra and seize power. After seizing power, we will use religion, personal charm, knowledge, and money to develop human technology and customize contingency plans against future enemies!
At the same time, try to find talents and original bodies as much as possible.
Hades drank another glass of wine, and the poisonous water drew a line down his throat. Why did he feel that this operation was so familiar? Did Neos do the same thing back then
The only difference is that Neos went to attack and recover the lost territory, while Hades is defending and consolidating the territory this time.
In the meantime, Hades also has to find a way to solve his own problems.
After thinking about what to do next, Hades stopped talking absentmindedly, eating while thinking about what might happen next.
Seeing that Pluto began to think, Buzz decisively kept silent, but occasionally asked the mechanical servant to replenish the goods and wine.
Outside the room, which had suddenly become quiet, the Hades were still making a lot of noise. Knowing that the King of Hell was watching, they fought even more vigorously.
Under the light in the room, Hades was looking at the strange painting in loneliness. It had a postmodern style, with the randomly smeared black covering the lines underneath, where there used to be a suit of armor and a sickle, and then... and then the painter's angry scribbles.
It was a picture of Pluto.
… … … … …
[Past]
[Establish a religion with him as the leader...]
Mortarion said weakly, the giant worm slumped in the twisted chair, breathing,
[To curb the diversion of the God Emperor's faith, and at the same time... if he comes back at that time, it will also be convenient for him to work. ]
[A bunch of insects who only care about religion...]
The Pale Lord cursed, but then continued,
[Keep up good relations with the Ultramarines and the World Eaters, and regarding the Imperial Fists... other small legions... you guys are in charge of the operations, and there should be no disputes between the large legions... The Death Guard can come forward to mediate.]
Karas, who was opposite him, looked at him.
"The Dark Angels don't care?"
The Primarch paused for a moment.
[That's their own twists and turns,] Mortarion said, [and there's... I'm not sure if it's His handiwork. We don't have the energy to play with those beings who play riddles... Let's kill one first.]
Karas sighed.
"Do you really believe he can return? You might as well hope that the Emperor rises - at least we can see him."
[…]
[Whether he comes back or not...] Mortarion said firmly, [I believe that the next person to solve this mess will be from the Death Guard.]
And its branch chapters.
Karas stared at Mortarion. Perhaps it would be better to say that after this step is accomplished, no matter which powerful person wants to save the empire from collapse, he will have to have a good relationship with the Death Guard.
Perhaps the Primarch did not say so just to save face.
Maybe... he really thought the next hero to save the Empire would come from the Death Guard.
(End of this chapter)