40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 309 29. Blood of Calth (1, 7k)

004.M31, Cowes Ground.

Robert Guilliman tightened his grip on his pen and signed an order. The thick single paper document was quickly taken away by the servant. Watching it and the servant go away, Guilliman once again found the reason why he didn't like paper documents.

He didn't like it when it reminded him again and again, but he couldn't help it.

"Too heavy," he said to Marius Gage. "Don't you think they had some purpose in making the paper as thick and heavy as metal plates, Gage?"

"I remember we discussed this fourteen years ago, Primarch," Gage said. "You concluded at the time that the Empire's system of settling payments by weight needed to be changed."

Guilliman chuckled: "Yes, it is true. But the Terran administration rejected my suggestion."

He stood in front of the bookshelf in his office with his hands behind his back. The wooden floor under his feet carried the weight of the original body well without making any sound. But this was its limit. If Guilliman chose Armor, the floor would collapse without hesitation.

Everything, every living thing, even the world itself has a threshold of tolerance. Beyond this value, everything will completely collapse.

Guilliman keenly caught the theory that flashed through his mind. He picked it up and threw it into another corner with familiarity.

As we all know, he often wrote books, and some of the ideas in his books came from such inconsequential moments. A true wise man must be good at observation. Robert Guilliman did not dare or want to call himself this, but he was indeed a man who was good at observation.

That's why he said those words to his first chapter leader, Marius Gage, one minute and thirty-one seconds later.

"Something is not right." The Lord of Macragge said in a calm tone that was completely unlike him. "I have read every investigation report on Calth in the past twelve years, and there is no sign that there is an orc empire named Gasrak threatening us."

Gage wisely remained silent and did not answer the question. On a normal day, he would have been happy to participate in the Primarch's discussion, but not now.

It concerns the Warmaster, and another thing that frightens even the thought of it.

"And, he sent Lorgar and the Word Bearers." Guilliman finally turned around and began to pace on the wooden floor.

The steps were soft and soft, not a sound that a big man like him could make. The golden cufflinks on the cuffs of the Archon's uniform sparkled, and the Calth sun sent them warm rays through the windows.

Gage could feel its warmth himself, but somehow he felt no joy about it.

"Is this normal?" Guilliman said, his voice filled with doubt as he stared at the floor.

He seemed to be asking Gage, and he seemed to be just asking himself.

"If the Word Bearers are sent alone, then this will be a simple military operation, and I don't even have to show up. But Lorgar is also here. Does Horus want me to get back on track with him?"

He raised his head and finally looked at Gage. Still he didn't ask a question, but gave a conclusion. This is what Robert Guilliman is best at - extracting the essence from the minutiae, analyzing it, and finally reaching a conclusion.

Only this time, the conclusion sounded scary.

"Activate Calth's planetary weapons array and preheat the weapons. I want every macrocannon to be ready to fire at any time."

"Primary body?" Gage looked at him in shock.

"Just do as I say." Guilliman waved his right hand resolutely. "At the same time, the security level of the star port will be raised. I want all ships to complete maintenance and leave the orbital dock within the next six hours. Form an array and prepare for any Word Bearers fleet that is about to jump out from Mandeville Point."

"clear."

With some half-formed resolve, Gage left his office with the Primarch's orders. He knew that Robert Guilliman would issue more orders after this.

His Primarch would be at that desk looking through the data, trying to find patterns in them. He would take all the information that was diverted from the message processing center and marked 'Robert Guilliman' and 'Maximum Security'. Watched it without stopping

Until things settle, or something worse happens.

Seventeen minutes later, Gage passed by the plains of Cowes in a troop carrier. The sky was still blue and there seemed to be no problem.

Farmers worked on their fields, some raising their hands to signal Gage. They didn't know that the man sitting inside was Marius Gage, and they didn't need to know.

All civilians in the five hundred worlds of Ultramar trust the Ultramarines. To Gage, this relationship is not the traditional 'trust between superiors and subordinates', or the trust between the protector and the protected, but respect, A mixture of complex emotions after so many years of love and devotion to each other.

Gage raised his head and saw the huge shadow belonging to the battleship looming behind the clouds. The mobilized legion fleet was waiting for the soldiers of the Seventeenth Legion to assemble. They would talk a lot about how to kill the orcs.

The veterans would spend time teaching the new recruits what tactics and techniques to use to deal with these filthy and disgusting beasts. Gage himself enjoyed doing this, but he had no chance to do it now.

In fact, he wasn't even sure he wanted to do it.

Thirteen minutes later, he arrived at the ground communications center. This matter didn't have to be so complicated, but there were too many warships parked above Cowes, and Gage had seen that sight when he landed.

Macragge's Glory was anchored not far from the starport, along with eighteen other heavily armed battleships. Among them were countless troop transports, twenty-five cruisers, and fifteen Adeptus Mechanicus ships.

Some have completed maintenance, some have not and are still moored in the starport dock. Shuttles and small ships shuttle back and forth endlessly between them, transporting supplies, intelligence, personnel, or whatever else the people need.

The electromagnetic signals and information disturbances generated by these ships make it almost impossible to directly communicate with a certain ship from the ground, so he must come to the ground communication center to do this.

It took Gage three minutes to enter the main body of the communication center. Under the blue and white U-shaped flag and the Empire's Sky Eagle flag, he completely conveyed Robert Guilliman's words to the planetary weapons array and all star ports of Calth. .

At the same time, among the cogitator arrays in the communications center, correspondent Meredith Farrell observed an unusual disturbance in the communications signals. She reported the incident to security chief Thorok Barron.

The latter examined the signal for five minutes and came to a conclusion.

"Just a murmur," the man said, smiling as he leaned on correspondent Meredith Farrell's workbench. "Nothing to worry about, although it does sound a bit like singing."

"Oh, it's working time now, don't do this." Meredith looked away, not wanting to see his smile anymore.

"But maybe after get off work?" Sorok Barron asked tentatively. "I've booked a nice restaurant in town so we can have some wine tonight and get a good night's sleep. I've sent the kid to my dad's house, he's going to enjoy the story about grandpa joining the army. What do you think, wife? ?”

"I told you it's time to go to work now -" the correspondent glanced at him, but still agreed with a smile. "—Okay, husband."

They ignored the communication noise, just like the other operators who observed it. Space is always like this, full of indescribable roars and whispers. It's just singing, what's the point?

In the first few years of their careers, these people will be accustomed to hearing all kinds of strange noises, and this song does not even rank high in terms of weirdness. But it appeared so often that it was observed eight times in two hours.

Eight times of singing and eight times of disturbance, so the ground communication center warned various departments about the matter, hoping to find out the cause.

They couldn't find out why, because those who were supposed to receive the message didn't.

Eight times of singing, eight levels of Tao.

It might have been a clue or an omen, but the Thirteenth Legion didn't catch it—they didn't catch it because they simply didn't know what signs they were supposed to catch.

Everyone is dedicated to their duties and working hard. Judging from the post-investigation report, no one can be blamed at all.

Roboute Guilliman knew this, only to find out much later.

He also knew that he had issued orders, that he had made preparations in advance, that he had expectations, but this was not enough, far from it.

You need something more determined to deal with that stuff. But it doesn't matter, he has plenty of time and opportunity to regret this.

lifelong.

——

004.M31, Calth, weapons array control center.

Servomaster Urquhar Hurst began today's eighteen thousand two hundred and forty-fourth inspection. His movements were very fast and precise.

The first thing he checked was the 250,000 surface weapon launching stations - you can just find a highly lethal thing from the imperial standard military book, and then throw it behind the weapons launching station, such as a missile silo, plasma cannon, automatic turret

It's up to you, anything, it's all available in Cowes.

Then there is the giant combined void shield control system that envelopes the major cities and residential areas of Calth. It is produced by the forging world Konnor and provided by Mars with technical support.

Some people jokingly call this system the most ambitious and selfless sharing within the Mechanicus. Urquharhurst does not like this statement, but he accepts it.

Finally, he checked the nine hundred and sixty-two orbital platforms, which are near the starport. They are weapons of another level. If necessary, these weapons will all fire in an instant.

But this must be inspected by Ulkharhurst, as well as all the High Technicians and Servomasters of Calth, and the first order comes from Robert Guilliman or a Chapter Master.

However, this does not mean that they are not threatening.

In fact, every ship movement, entry, replenishment, etc. inside and outside the starport will trigger the automatic aiming of the weapon array, and their requests will be uploaded to the minds of the servo engineers, who will then begin to manually veto all firing requests.

So now you know how much firepower and protection Calth has.

So why didn't it work when Calth needed it most?

The answer is a string of data waste codes. Yes, it's that simple.

Any information system will form useless codes due to the degradation of internal data, and Calth's weapons array is no exception. But this string is different, what is the difference?

First, assume that someone can get to the bottom of it, and then he will see the truth.

He would see that the S-0-999-2 macrocannon of the Calth Weapon Array produced this waste code at one twenty-four minutes and thirty-one seconds that afternoon.

According to the programming of the information system, the S-0-999-2 macro cannon sent it to the Cauth thinking space shared by the servo engineers, the waste code sinking unit. There's nothing special about it, except that it's not recognized by binary code.

Actually, it's not any data language, it's just a simple word.

eight.

Extended Expansion: The Eightfold Path.

It took two hours and twenty-three minutes for Servo Ulkelhurst to discover it, and by then, it was too late.

——

004.M31, Ground level at Cowes, Imperial Army assembly point in Roude province.

Sergeant Herok of the 61st Company of Numinas put his hand on his waist and took out a cigarette. He placed the crumpled little thing between his rough index and middle fingers and asked another private to light it for him.

After a few seconds, he exhaled a breath of air with satisfaction. The smell of tobacco from his hometown always satisfied the sergeant. Unfortunately, this was the last one.

He was smoking a cigarette and standing with his subordinates under the shadow of the tree canopy, squinting at the other side of the camp two hundred meters away. There was a group of ragged people standing sparsely there. They were the 'auxiliary army' that had followed the Word Bearers' vanguard to Calos.

Forgive Sergeant Hurlock's dismissive tone; he really didn't want to use that word to refer to this group of people. Their skin is pale and their bodies are thin, and they are completely incompatible with the word soldier.

The more important point is that Hurlock can't see any discipline in them. This group of primitive-like guys didn't even know how to line up, which already made Sergeant Herlock very irritated, not to mention that they were still singing.

What the fuck, singing? We are about to board the ship and gather to fight the orcs. You barbarians who got off the troop carrier are still singing? Macragge, if possible, these bastards should stay on their troopships.

Calth doesn't welcome these dirty bastards. Why do the Word Bearers need this kind of force when the Astartes already have better auxiliaries?

Please forgive Sergeant Hurlock again, he didn't mean to be so mean, he couldn't help it.

The singing of this group of people is not pleasant. It neither makes people feel high-spirited nor happy. It had no rhythm, more like thousands of people shouting at the top of their lungs.

More importantly, Hurlock didn't like the auxiliaries landing all over Calth early. If it were a group of well-disciplined Imperial soldiers, he would welcome them, but this group of barbarians?

forget it.

Hurlock stared at them for half a minute. Then he put down his cigarette and stubbed the remaining half into his breast pocket.

He had to go talk to the commander of this group of barbarians - or rather, the leader.

He walked one hundred and eighty meters, and amid the singing of the barbarians, he smelled the smell of blood. He turned his head and saw seven bodies lying inside a blue tent provided by the Army Assembly Hall.

Sergeant Hurlock drew his gun.

——

004.M31, Calth Orbital, Macragge's Glory.

Robert Guilliman took off his jacket and put on another uniform tunic. He adjusted his cuffs and collar, then he walked out of his dressing room and used the elevator to reach the bridge of Macragge's Flair.

His officers have been waiting here for a long time, all of them armed.

Gage met him and spoke in a low voice: "According to your instructions, the punished officer Ionid Hill is already waiting in the antechamber of the fortieth deck."

"His company commander Teroni has already met him?"

"Yes."

"His Chapter Master Antoli has also met him?"

"Yes."

"Very well, so it will be my turn later." Guilliman shrugged humorously. "I know you're going to start complaining about me micromanaging things again, Gage."

"I reserve my opinion for now," Gage said, bringing his primarch to a state-of-the-art holographic projection device.

Several representatives of the Mechanicus raised their hands - or tentacles to say hello to the original body, and a senior technician began to explain: "As per your instructions, the holographic projection system is ready."

"Which operator is busy with me today?" Guilliman asked with a smile.

Among the array of meditators on the side, a thin man raised his hands, his cheeks flushed.

"Thank you, Tarly," Guilliman said. "Now I ask all of you to leave for now, okay? I would like to be alone with my brother for a while, if he is willing to see me in advance."

The officers began to salute, and the senior technicians of the Adeptus Mechanicus greeted again. The staff, crew, and even the servitors left the bridge.

Within minutes, Robert Guilliman was the only one left here. He stood there, his previous lightness and smile all disappearing in an instant.

He had lied to Tully and the others, even though he shouldn't have, that he wasn't here to be alone with his brother, he was here to question, to confirm whether blood should bloom on Calth.

And, in fact, he wasn't even sure if the man on the other side of the holographic call system was his brother.

But he had to try.

Two minutes later, the holographic projection system was activated. Light began to bloom around Guilliman, and with the distorted light, Lorgar Aurelion's face appeared in front of him. No body, just a face. This is one of the optional modes of communication.

Far from respectful enough.

"Lorgar, it's a pleasure to meet you," Guilliman said with a smile, telling another lie.

He carefully observed Luo Jia's face through the image, and then he discovered that compared to the sudden glimpse during the last Nicaea meeting, Luo Jia's skin was completely covered in tattoos. It's messy and disorderly, no longer arranged in an orderly manner like before.

They glowed against his skin and twisted in response to the changes in his primarch's expression.

"Me too, brother," Lorgar Aurelion said, but he did not smile. "If you are here to rush, then I ask you to wait a little longer. We will be there in eight and a half hours at most. My captain promised me this number and he will make it happen."

"No, I didn't mean that, brother. I just wanted to ask, why are your advance troops so thin?"

Luo Jia looked at him for a while before continuing to answer.

"You mean those, the auxiliaries?" he said slowly. "Ah, they are like this, you don't have to care."

"I'm afraid I have to care."

Luo Jia was silent for a while again, his face gradually becoming thoughtful. After a few seconds, the mantra bearer laughed.

"You know, don't you?" he asked.

Guilliman closed his eyes.

"Gage." He lowered his head and called his first chapter leader using the communicator built into his collar. "Notify all standby companies to start the clearing plan. I want to see all the auxiliary troops belonging to the Seventeenth Legion executed within half an hour."

"Good plan, good reaction, brother." On the other side of the holographic image, Luo Jia praised repeatedly. "Sure enough, what Horus said is true. You are indeed the most difficult one among us to deal with when you are prepared. But are you prepared enough?"

"If you dare show up, you will know," Guilliman said coldly.

Lorgar laughed, this was not a 'Lorgar Aurelion' smile, this was a completely distorted smile.

His teeth were exposed, as were his darkened gums. His eyes began to blink—blinking as he laughed. What could be weirder than that?

Guilliman stared at him coldly, his hands slowly clenching. Before Luo Jia could speak, he asked first.

"I know that the person I am talking to now is not the person I am familiar with. In fact, I am not even sure whether you are a human being." Guilliman said, boiling anger began to rise in his eyes, turning those blue eyes His eyes turned into a burning sea.

"I know what you can do, but since I can break free, I think Luo Jia can too."

"I am Luo Jia." The man said. "As for you, okay, brother. I'll be honest, one of the gods is very unhappy with your escape, but that doesn't matter. Hey, since we're going to war, can I ask you a question?"

"Ask, scum."

"Did you hear the singing?" Lorgar Aurelion asked with a smile.

Guilliman wanted to say no, but he couldn't lie to himself. He heard it—and not just the singing.

And there were screams.

Robert Guilliman turned his head sharply and looked at the porthole on the left side of Macragge's Glory. To the right of the Calth Orbital Weapons Array and Starport, the stars were twisting and the Mandeville Point began to chant and scream.

Six battleships with huge eight-pointed star marks on their hulls rushed out side by side, revving their engines and starting to accelerate in a manner that absolutely violated any safety manual. Guilliman looked at the six ships for five seconds, then he grabbed his collar.

"Gage!" he shouted. "Order to fire! Listen to my order, the orbital weapons array will fire immediately!"

"Fire, if you can." Luo Jia told him softly. "Being prepared isn't enough, bro. Do you know what's going to happen next?"

He smiled and turned off the comm.

Guilliman knew, because Gage told him in a near-screaming voice that the weapons array was inoperable, but he didn't want to say it, but he had to see.

On the bridge of Macragge's Glory, he fully saw how the six ships hit the ring-shaped weapons platform of Calth, and how they used chain explosions to destroy everything in the starport and dockyard that had not had time to evacuate. Of a ship.

Battleships, troop carriers, cruisers, shuttles, space orbital suspension workshops, docks, berthing platforms. Then there are the Mechanicum's suspension foundries, foundry ships, and finally the entire starport. The six ships that activated their void shields and rushed out of Mandeville Point at maximum speed in advance killed part of Calth.

He saw them disappear into ashes with his own eyes, making no sound, only an increasingly violent explosion flash, like the sun exploding, and the flames swallowed everything. But this is not the end, because the Mandeville point continues to twist.

A dozen ships with the Word Bearers' logo roared out of it.

Roboute Guilliman pulled off his uniform, he tore it, and then he threw it down.

"Gage," he called. "Prepare to kill."

——

004.M31, Calth, Night Soul.

Three hours and fifty-one minutes from Cowes, Van Cleef, standing on the bridge, witnessed the flash with his own eyes. He was convinced that he had seen it correctly, and the buzzing cogitator and the electromagnetic signals he received also told him that he had seen it correctly.

He then told 2nd Captain Dar Vanolarus, 3rd Captain Fel Zalost, and 4th Captain Karl Drasok: "Go and prepare weapons."

"What's going on?" Dar asked.

"I don't know," Van Cleef said. "But this is the problem. If the notice goes down, I want everyone in the four large companies to be ready. Tell our escort fleet to be ready to jump gangs at any time. Captain Djoko!"

A gloomy male voice answered him: "Yes, First Company Commander?"

"Turn on the main engine to maximum power," Van Cleef told him, pressing his sword. "I want to reduce three hours and five ten minutes to less than three hours. Can the Night Soul do it?"

The captain, who was wearing a dark blue windbreaker and a scarlet shirt, bowed gracefully: "It's easy, a captain."

Twelve minutes later, Angel Tai arrived on the top bridge.

At this moment, the flash of light was still affecting the vacuum. It's still there on everyone's retinas as a reminder that something is going on, like a scar on your face so obvious that it's impossible not to notice it unless you're blind.

Van Cleef stretched out his hand and pointed at the flash of light: "Did you see it?"

Angel Tai took a deep breath and nodded.

"Don't worry." The company commander said, the eyes on the high cheekbones were very calm, as if this was just an ordinary voyage.

"Looking at the bright side, we haven't determined what's going on yet. Maybe it's not the Word Bearers attacking the Ultramarines, but the Ultramarines attacking the Word Bearers?"

".Is this a joke?"

"No, I just want to comfort you." Van Cleef gave a rare chuckle. "But you don't seem to need to, okay."

He shook his head and his expression became serious: "Are you and your brothers ready?"

Angel Tai, who was wearing gray-white armor, had a distorted face and put on a helmet. Half a second later, his hoarse voice came from the breathing grille.

"The Sons of Aurelion are at your disposal."

Big chapter, 7k, updated.