White, dazzling, cold, ruthless, the lights are flashing.
Bright room, but not warm.
Despair once spread here, and at this moment, it still shrouds here, but a little hope is swaying slowly, supporting a tiny light.
Here the Primarch sat in silence, and over there, out of sight of them, his brood cried out, without a sound.
Quiet, Death Guard always is like this.
But someone always breaks the silence.
"Mortarion, after I saw those images, I have been thinking about how to fight against this predetermined fate and how to win the war against the creatures of the warp."
Rather than empty comfort, Mortarion and his legion need practical and actionable advice now.
Growing up on Barbarus, Mortarion had always been a pragmatist rather than an idealist, grabbing whatever he could use, even if he loathed it.
With enough leverage, Mortarion would accept Hades' proposal.
"And now, my first answer is, psyker."
"Every human with a soul is a channel between the Warp and the physical world. Among them, psykers are more likely to open the interface between the Warp and the physical world."
"But this does not mean that psykers need to be eliminated. We need psykers to give early warning of the emergence of warp creatures and to judge the thickness of the barrier between the warp and the physical world."
"and,"
"We need psykers to fight psykers, to fight the creatures of the Warp."
"Taking into account the deployment cost, the only one who can defeat a psychic is another psychic."
Mortarion raised his eyes slowly, his amber eyes dim in the white light.
"And you."
Hades paused, but quickly continued his speech.
"Untouchables are also an excellent choice to fight against psychics, but compared to psychics, the cost of finding and training Untouchables, as well as their ability to adapt to the battlefield, are obviously weaker than psychics."
Hades is a special mutant, and not all Untouchables can be transformed into Space Marines.
Moreover, the characteristics of the Untouchables determine that they will only appear on the battlefield with psykers or warp creatures.
Deploying them on other battlefields is not a wise choice.
After all, untouchables can also have a negative impact on their comrades.
During the Great Crusade, the main battles were with aliens and other humans, and the deployment of the Untouchables was more like an investment in the future.
Mortarion stared at Hades in silence, thoughtful.
"So... let's not talk about the Untouchables for now. We, the Death Guard, need psychic teams. Psychics with strong wills can resist the existence of the Warp."
There was still a look of resistance in Mortarion's eyes. He thought of those foolish people who used witchcraft. He thought of those who used witchcraft and eventually became crazy.
And their power ultimately comes from the subspace.
The chaos, the madness, the filth.
Hades' eyes darkened.
"I know what you're worried about, Mortarion. I'm not trying to protect psykers. In fact, as beings closer to the Warp, psykers are more susceptible to corruption and become... those beings we all hate."
"So, we need monitoring and error correction."
"That's my second answer. Let's set up a political commissar or a priest in the Death Guard."
"You can call them whatever you want. They are not only responsible for the psychological and ideological work of the psychics, but also for the ideological work of the entire legion."
Mortarion was obviously lost in thought. Political commissar? There had never been such a position on Barbarus, and there was no political commissar in other legions.
Commissars are figures who exist in the mortal auxiliary army. Mortarion has always believed that only those warriors with weak wills will need them.
And the pastor
Mortarion knew that his brother Lorgar held this position in the Legion, but there were no gods on Barbarus, and they, who faced the earth, did not welcome religion or the gorgeous and wasteful existence of priests.
Mortarion frowned, but the cries of his children still echoed deep in his soul.
"The warp is an existence that can corrupt thoughts. Even though the Death Guard is the representative of tenacity and indomitable will on the current battlefield, we still need warriors of the mind and soul. This is a different battlefield, a battlefield that the previous legion rarely touched upon—"
"But this is a battlefield we will face sooner or later, and it is an existence we have to face."
Are their minds really not as tough as they appear
However, the despair just now was like a maggot gnawing at his bones, crawling all over his soul. That feeling was really bad.
Moreover, if it was Hades who proposed it, as an untouchable and someone who had seen the vision in advance, he must have thought it over carefully, right
Even though Mortarion felt a subconscious disgust towards these unfamiliar words, he was the Lord of the Legion and the father of his children, so he could not be so willful.
Only those who face reality will be the ultimate winner.
"Really. There is no other alternative, Hades?"
Hades looked at him, his eyes full of seriousness and determination.
"Mortarion, as a personal preference, I am not biased towards this, but given the current situation and form, it seems that we only have one option."
Mortarion paused for a moment, then nodded slowly and silently.
"Okay, I accept your suggestion."
"The new think tank team is called Undertaker."
They will bring death, they will send their enemies back to the other world.
Even though their existence is despised by everyone.
"And the new team of management ideas, discipline and soul is called the grave warden."
Anyone could be granted death's sleep, but not them, they are the gravekeepers, the caretakers of the Legion.
They have to struggle to survive in this cruel world, convey the power of ideas, and defend the barriers of ideas.
"good."
Undertaker, gravekeeper.
Mortarion chewed over the two names slowly in his mind.
Their existence will completely change the fate of the Death Guard.
Hades swallowed his saliva.
“And then, my third answer is, the Untouchables.”
Mortarion raised an eyebrow.
“Although the number of untouchables is extremely small and the cost of training them is huge, we still need them.”
“This is going to be a losing proposition for a long time.”
“But we need them.”
Mortarion spoke, saying what Hades was thinking.
Hades nodded. Currently, the Empire's untouchable force only consisted of the Sisters of Silence. There was a formal screening and training process for female untouchables.
"If we want to expand the ranks of the Untouchables, we need to expand the sources of recruits for the Death Guard."
“That’s my fourth answer.”
"Not only the Untouchables, our legion also needs to expand."
Mortarion nodded. Expanding the army was his original ambition.
After Mortarion took over the legion, he reorganized it into seven companies, and the full strength of each company was 70,000 people.
If the Death Guard reaches full strength, they will have 490,000 Space Marines.
Currently, the only recruitment planet for the Death Guard is Barbarus. In the original book, Mortarion did not choose any other recruitment planet.
Hades blinked imperceptibly. He still didn't understand what Mortarion was thinking. He wanted to use a conscription planet to recruit 490,000 Space Marines.
And Barbarus is not a densely populated hive.
Robert Guilliman next door, despite owning 500 worlds of Ultramar and having an extremely efficient administrative system, has a legion with a permanent strength of only about 250,000.
If the Death Guard wants to expand their army, they must expand their recruitment planets.
Generally speaking, during the Great Crusade, it was relatively easy for a legion to find a planet for recruiting soldiers. As long as the operation was done properly, the legion could obtain a planet that had been taken over by the empire.
I just don't know why Mortarion in the original book didn't apply for a new recruitment location for the Legion. It's likely, Hades thought, that Mortarion probably felt that the soldiers from other planets were unreliable.
Moreover, if the recruitment of soldiers from multiple sources is done properly, it can, to a certain extent, resolve the regional conflicts within the legion.
A cruel future is already before Mortarion and the Death Guard. In the face of life and death, personal preferences can certainly be ignored.
"Okay, recruit untouchables and expand the conscription planet. I accept."
Now, Hades was thinking in his heart that the Think Tanks and the Untouchables would be used to fight Chaos on the front battlefield, the Political Commissars would prevent the Legion from being corrupted, and the expansion of the conscription planets would be a decision that would benefit everything.
There is also the need to improve productivity. Technology is the primary productive force!
But Hades swallowed his saliva again. To be honest, although he really wanted to go to Mars to study under the Mechanicus, judging from the current situation, his previous behavior had directly cut off this possibility.
Hades was afraid that if Mortarion caused the same scene with the Legion as before once he left, he would probably end up crying while hugging the Mechanical Sage on Mars.
"Fifth, we need to develop anti-psychic technology and other technologies that can increase productivity."
As far as Hades knows, the most common anti-psychic device used by the Empire during the Great Crusade was the anti-psychic suppression collar, a product of the Dark Ages, but the Empire does not currently have this technology.
Because, the anti-psionic suppression collar is a lost technology recovered by the Iron Hands and the World Eaters, but now, Mortarion has just returned to the Imperium, and the XII Legion at this time is still called the War Dogs.
But that's enough, it at least provides evidence that anti-psionic technology does exist.
As for those other well-known exorcist grenades used by the yet-to-be-formed Chulisas Assassins, which were made from the psyker ashes produced after the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne after the Horus Heresy, it is obvious that this path is currently blocked.
Other alien technologies also include weapons that can counter psychic power or control psychic power.
Tsk. Hades thought silently in his heart. He originally wanted to go to Mars to see if there were any mechanical sages who specialized in researching anti-psychic weapons.
It's better to send someone else back. He will probably be hanging next to Mortarion as a pendant now.
This proposal was quite normal and easy to adopt for Mortarion.
Mortarion himself likes to do experiments and scientific research.
Science and logic, this is the creed that Mortarion has always believed in.
This is also why Mortarion hates the illogical and unscientific Warp.
Mortarion snorted and took it as an acceptance.
Just now, Hades helped him analyze the current situation and countermeasures in an organized manner.
Instead of facing the panic of being unable to resist the unknown enemy, Hades put these subspace creatures that were difficult even for ordinary people to understand in front of them and analyzed the countermeasures one by one.
The creatures of the Warp are not invincible. They have their own underlying rules. The Death Guard can resist, and they also have weapons against the creatures of the Warp.
Reason replaced emotional panic, and compared to his previous despair, Mortarion was now fiercely calculating in his mind the implementation measures of these proposals and their possible effects.
That should be about right, Mortarion thought. Hades had indeed stated all the measures that could be taken at the moment.
But a future filled with despair, chaos and disorder... No... Mortarion knew what else he could do.
Make the decision that will actually save them—
On the Endurance, and all Death Guard ships, he installed a self-destruct system and a system to force them out of the warp, and installed the self-destruct option on his scythe "Annihilation".
If that day really comes, let the raging flames devour everything.
Even though his soul may not rest in peace, his unwatched offspring can reap their final death.
This might be... this might be the last struggle he could make, the last thing he could do for his descendants.
Hades would never suggest this, but Mortarion would.
Of course, Mortarion would not tell Hades about this arrangement that he had decided to make.
After figuring it all out, Mortarion's inexplicable feeling of suffocation finally eased, and the God of Death dropped the hand that was strangling his own throat.
In Mortarion's reasoning, the worst outcome would be that most people would sleep in the flames, and in the end everything would still be death.
Even if he cannot be redeemed, it doesn't matter, as long as he does not let his descendants down.
At this moment, Mortarion felt inexplicably relieved. He looked at Hades with a sense of relief, hoping that he would end this conversation.
His offspring were calling him, his soul was beating inexplicably, and he needed to comfort the frightened children.
However, Hades looked at him with an unusually cold look in his eyes, and he continued to speak.
"Rule 6: Don't trust anyone."
"Trust no one, Mortarion."
Mortarion is stuck.
"Including the Death Guard?"
"Including the Death Guard."
"What about you?"
Hades took a deep breath.
"If I am corrupted, please kill me."
"So that includes me."
One update today, a large 4k chapter.
Thank you for subscribing and enjoy your reading. (≧▽≦)
Here, I would like to thank my book friend Bvafn Clatzemann for his help.
This book friend gave me great inspiration when I was naming the new think tank and political commissar.
Moreover, it was he who wrote the sickle obituary~
(σ′▽‵)′▽‵)σThanks again to this book friend
(The author really messed up the name)
(End of this chapter)