40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 173 34. With his own recovered patient

Robert Guilliman stood up slowly. It was not easy for him to do this now. He supported the armrests of the walker with both hands. His arms trembled so much that people worried that he would fall down in the next second.

But he didn't.

He stood up little by little. Under the faded blond hair, the blue eyes that were deeply haggard seemed very calm, and the first sentence he said could barely be regarded as a joke.

"I am now worried that Medical Officer Jairzinho will be invited to many unnecessary medical discussions in the future."

Conrad Curze raised the corners of his mouth and shook his head with a smile: "Unless you publicize your injury, he will still be a medical officer of my legion, not someone with superb medical skills who can even cure Robert Guilliman."

Guilliman also chuckled. Angron, who was standing aside, folded his hands, glanced at them with disapproving eyes and shook his head.

"I strongly urge you to go for another medical diagnosis, brother."

Angron said in a deep voice.

"You're awake, and even able to walk, but that doesn't mean you're okay. Many gladiators I know died in their sleep after a great battle. We celebrated them, and they acted as if nothing had happened at the banquet, but the next day, we only got a corpse."

"You have a point, Angron, but I'm..."

Guilliman paused for a moment and began to move himself little by little.

He pressed the button with his finger to unlock the lock button of the walker itself, and its auxiliary wheels began to work. Guilliman pushed it and walked for a distance before stopping again.

".I'm sure I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" Angron frowned. "Excuse me, brother, but you are just a patient now, and a patient cannot know the exact condition of his body."

Guilliman did not answer the question, but shook his head. He bent down, picked up an office data tablet from his desk, and placed it on the partition in the middle of the walker. Then, there was silence for several minutes.

Roboute Guilliman silently slid through the datapad, looking at the post-war statistics of the Ultramarines' losses.

He was very silent, and this silence made Konrad Curze feel familiar - so he patted Angron on the shoulder, and after the latter turned around, he gently shook his head at him.

Ten minutes later, Roboute Guilliman slowly let out a long breath. He lowered his head, raised his right hand, and slowly swept away the hair that blocked his vision.

The once handsome face now only had a frightening haggardness.

The cheeks were retracted, and the shape of the cheekbones and jaw was clearly visible. The eyes seemed to be embedded in the eye sockets. Although they were still as bright as gems, they also created a stronger contrast. There was no extra flesh on his face, only skin, tightly attached to the bones.

"How are you?" He asked softly, his voice hoarse, but he didn't seem weak.

"Three thousand six hundred and seventy-six people." Konrad Curze replied with a smile. "The Midnight Blades have three thousand six hundred and seventy-six victims."

"Midnight Blades?"

"Ah, I decided to give the Legion a new name. It would be too strange to keep calling it by its number, wouldn't it?"

Robert Guilliman nodded silently, moving his eyes away from Konrad Curze's face.

His younger brother was smiling without any warmth at the moment. He was smiling, but his eyes looked like he was undergoing an amputation without anesthesia.

The Lord of Macragge had experienced this feeling many times, and each time, he was in great pain, so he didn't intend to ask more.

He looked at Angron, the Nuceria grinned, his canine teeth were sharp, his smile was simple, but his tone was terrifyingly firm: "There are no dead in the War Hounds."

"." Guilliman nodded silently.

He could roughly guess what Angron had done on Halcosus II, and he would not question Angron about it - anything that involved aliens could not be resolved peacefully.

There is an eternal blood war between them and humans. Throughout the galaxy, there is almost no alien race that has not harmed humans. In those dark years, they committed a lot of blood debts, and this blood debt has exceeded the scope of crime.

Crimes can still be forgiven, but they can't.

"What about you, Robert?" Conrad Curze asked.

He was leaning against a bookcase naturally and leisurely at this moment, and was casually tapping it with his right hand against the side of the bookcase. He did not show sadness for the huge number of 3,676 casualties, as if he didn't care at all.

"The casualty figures are still being counted." Guilliman said. "At present, there are 1,324 confirmed casualties. The situation of the auxiliary army is slightly better, which can be regarded as a blessing in disguise."

He closed his eyes and meditated. It seems that he is thinking, and it seems that he is wandering in the corner of memory.

Conrad Curz and Angron did not speak. The former continued to tap the side of the bookcase rhythmically, while the latter came to the porthole and observed Halcosuus III through the track.

A few minutes later, Angron broke the silence: "There is no living thing on Halcosuus II."

The Nucerian turned his back to his brothers and spoke in an extremely calm voice, with the thick cable swaying behind his head: "So, where are Harkossus One and Three?"

"There are no living creatures on No. 1." Conrad Coates replied quietly. "My legion is inspecting the civilians of Harkossus who are at the bottom of the Night Veil's cabin. I haven't figured out how to deal with them yet."

Guilliman caught the word 'process' keenly. He opened his eyes, lowered his head and issued a new command on the data pad.

After doing this, he raised his head and said: "The same is true for No. 3, but I plan to do it more thoroughly. The entire underground of Harkossus No. 3 almost has traces of contamination from that kind of thing. , therefore, I will use orbital bombardment to destroy it after the search for survivors is completed."

"Then, the same goes for Number Two," Angron said. "I know that the empire has a huge colonial fleet on standby, but everything that happened on the planet Harkossus II should be completely destroyed in my opinion."

Conrad Coates nodded thoughtfully and did not answer the question immediately. Instead, he mentioned another matter.

"Robert, you have recovered many planets, right?"

"Yes."

"In other words, you have been participating in this great expedition for some time."

Cozz lowered his head, folded his hands, stopped tapping the bookcase, and started tapping the arm of his left hand with the index finger of his right hand. Metal collided, rubbed against each other, and made a clanging sound, as if a sharp knife was being drawn out of its sheath.

"So, what do you think it is?"

Robert Guilliman raised his head and began to stare at the two portraits on the wall.

Unlike his office on Macragge, these two portraits were hung directly above the bookcase. They were not obtrusive and could even be said to be natural.

The one on the left is a portrait of Conor Guilliman. The consul, wearing the uniform of a consul of his time, stood on the top of the mountain and rode a horse looking down at Macragge. The city was thriving, and Conor Guilliman's profile looked like he was deep in thought.

The one on the right is a portrait of the emperor, wearing golden armor, holding a sharp blade, and waving a sword. Thousands of troops and horses rushed out from behind his golden armor like shadows, declaring war on a roaring storm approaching not far away.

".Everyone has a different answer to this, Konrad." Robert Guilliman spoke in a low voice. "Take Ferus as an example. For him, the Great Expedition can be divided into the following five steps. Get on the ship, reach the destination, fight, win, and get on the ship."

"It goes around and around again. But Ferrus is not bored by this. He has considerable enthusiasm for war. This enthusiasm comes from his identification with our father's ideals. Therefore, he is willing to play a role during the Great Crusade. Sentient weapons."

"But I am different. I have tried this before. I cannot accept leaving the devastated and crying civilians after the victory of the war. Moreover, if too cruel methods are used, the recovered world will not be harmful to us. Too much recognition often results in rebellion and counterinsurgency.”

Robert Guilliman suddenly smiled bitterly. His excessive thinness made this smile look shocking and terrifying.

"The empire takes a very serious attitude towards rebellion. There is no second chance. If the rebel planet does not surrender immediately after the arrival of the imperial fleet, most of the people will be executed, and the remaining people will be demoted as slaves and slave labor.”

"I have experienced this, so I believe that my legion cannot simply go across the star sea to fight one war after another. Every time we recover a world, we will stay there until they can be self-sufficient and have a defense system. "

"We will help them, such as leaving a team of consultants to help them establish trade routes. Identity is very important, I even wrote a book about this, it is on the fourth shelf behind you, the first one is As for what exactly the Great Crusade is."

The Lord of Macragge closed his mouth with a complicated expression and stopped talking. His expression was enough to answer the question.

An idealist will only be so painful when he does the right thing. Idealists are so ridiculous. They will be painful because they cannot realize their ideals, but they will also be more painful because they are walking on this road.

Because they understand the price of being right.

Conrad Coates quietly raised the corners of his mouth, still smiling, but his smile was a hundred times better than before.

"The Great Crusade is a process of recovering lost territory, and this war against Harkossus requires at least one planet to be preserved. Otherwise, what lost territory have we recovered? Broken asteroids? I will check it after Let those civilians return to live on Harkossus One, if they are not contaminated."

Angron frowned: "Are you sure, brother?"

"I'm sure." The Lord of Midnight nodded slowly, with a half-smiling expression on his face. "The situation on Harkossus One is complicated, Angron. It was once contaminated by those things, but the contamination has completely disappeared."

"Then the Ultramarines will stay and continue our tradition," Robert Guilliman said. "Until the Empire sends someone to take over here, my First Chapter and I will stay here."

Conrad Coates grinned. He walked to the door and opened it, revealing a bruised and armored Marius Gage to his brothers. Guilliman pursed his lips with a complicated expression and said nothing.

Gage glanced at Konrad Coze gratefully, but the latter smiled and shook his head, pulling Angron away, not even forgetting to close the door.

His hearing was always very good, and he once listened to someone's voice with trepidation through a heavy door.

The door slowly closed, and Marius Gage looked at his primarch, remaining completely silent and saying nothing. Guilliman looked at his Chapter Master, also silent, but not because he didn't know what to say.

In fact, on the contrary, he had too much to say, so he remained silent. In the end, it was Gage who took the initiative to speak.

".We almost thought we lost you."

Guilliman shook his head.

"Blame it on them," he said softly. "They're not trying too hard."

Gage laughed dumbly. Robert Guilliman is like this. He can always use an ingenious word to relieve stress and make everyone smile at certain moments. He is very good at this, which is inseparable from his status as a politician.

Gage was amused, and his smile gradually widened into something almost unstoppable.

"I swore long ago that I would protect you, Primarch." Marius Gage spoke in a low voice. "And today, I made another vow."

"I swear I will bring you back. I said this to countless people while I was underground. They trusted my words because they trusted you and they were fearless. I thought I was fearless until I saw When you appeared in the clearing with a ray of light, I almost thought you were dead."

"But I didn't, Gage. Like I said, it was their lack of effort," Guilliman replied softly.

He raised his head and looked at one of the two portraits again. He stopped talking, and so did Gage.

There was no need to describe the tacit understanding between them. The First Chapter Master already understood his primarch's unspoken apology. Just as Guilliman understood Marius Gage's twisted pain hidden beneath his calm exterior.

"But." After a long time, Guilliman spoke again. His eyes became sharp in an instant. They were not the eyes that a patient should have.

He waved to Gage, motioning for him to come over. ".This matter has also given me a lot of new ideas. Come and discuss it with me, Marius."

Without hesitation, Gage walked over, just like before, just like always.

The update is completed and it is still 7k today.