40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 311 31. Blood of Calth (III, 9k)

004.M31, Calth Ground, Hell.

Van Cleef read a book about eleven years ago, written by a priest. At the end of the book, she asked a question. For this question, she died, died in the hands of a group of rioting believers. But she didn't seem to regret it.

That question is, what is the difference between gods and demons?

Van Cleef didn't have an answer at the time, but now he has one.

Gods can do evil at will without punishment.

Van Cleef raised his right hand and dismembered a so-called "Word Bearer Auxiliary Army" with an octagonal star engraved on his forehead with a chainsaw sword. There were eight human heads wrapped around his waist, each of which was not as pale, thin and dirty as him.

They were once residents of Calth, and now they are just eight heads with eyes open.

It was still raining fire from the sky. To be fair, it was inaccurate to call the Night Face of Calth at this time the "Night Face" because the fire illuminated everything.

The wreckage of the starport, the fragments of the warships and other miscellaneous things kept falling from the sky. Van Cleef was sure that the continental plates of Calth would shift after this disaster.

Thinking about these things, he rushed forward and killed more traitors. There were corpses and burning flames everywhere. This group of traitors treated everyone equally, whether they were imperial soldiers or civilians, they would kill them all.

Most of the corpses were piled up together and painted with bloody eight-pointed star patterns. Some were nailed to walls or telephone poles, their intestines were cut open, and all the internal organs disappeared.

The Night Blades were also such a cruel legion a long time ago, but their sharp blades had never been shown to the civilians of the Empire.

Realizing this, Van Cleef couldn't help but laugh.

In the communication channel, his adjutant asked softly: "What triggered your terrible sense of humor, Captain?"

"I just suddenly realized that we probably have to kill a lot of beasts." Van Cleef answered while running. "And this makes me happy."

"You should understand that this is a blasphemy, right?" Morets asked again. "These things, corpses, sacrifices, missing entrails and eaten human bodies, I don't think this is a war, Captain."

"If it's not a war, then what is it?"

"Hell." Morets said seriously. "A living hell, created by the damn Word Bearers. A few hours ago it might have been a paradise, with a good living condition that most of the Empire's residents could not imagine, but now it's just a hell."

"Let's call it Kos according to the official name." Van Cleef shook his head and ended the conversation.

The flames shot up to the sky, and the gloomy armor of the Night Blades was looming in the dancing fireworks. The city is now just a ruin, and it is still raining fire from the sky. All kinds of vehicles are not suitable for use now.

This is good, anyway, they never like to drive tanks and armored vehicles. After advancing along the planned route for 25 minutes, a detachment of the First Company of the Eighth Legion successfully arrived at the communication center of Kospro City.

This is a high-rise building - of course, not so high now - the blasphemous human skin flag replaced the symbols of the Empire and the Ultramarines, swaying in the anxious breeze in the square full of corpses.

Van Cleef took a deep breath to keep himself calm. Two minutes later, they rushed into the communication center from all angles, and after another five minutes, they cleared the place.

The technical sergeant began to try to restart the ground communication network. After the thirty-fifth attempt, Kos's instrument prompted that a communication signal was captured. It was captured and connected to the communication network. In the noisy and violent electromagnetic interference, Van Cleef finally heard a voice from the Ultramarines.

"This is Remas Ventanus, the captain of the 4th Company of the Ultramarines. Who has access to the communication center in Pro City? I warn you, if you are a traitor, I will disembowel you!"

"I don't think we are." Van Cleef told him and sent an identity identification code. "This is Van Cleef, Captain of the Midnight Blades."

"What did you say?!" The man shouted in an overloaded voice in the unstable communication channel. "Who? How could you-"

"--There is no time to explain more, Captain of the Fourth Company of Ventanus. The communication network is not stable yet. I hope that the identification code I sent can be received by you. Before that, I will make it short. We are from Nostramo, and I am sorry that I cannot tell you the specific reason now."

Van Cleef paused for a moment to make his next words sound more credible: "We brought four large companies, and there are 35,000 people landing on the ground. We landed in Pro City on the night side of Calth forty minutes ago. We are moving forward and assisting you in rebuilding the communication network on the ground of Calth."

The communication channel was silent for a while. For a while, there was almost only the intense background noise caused by the electric current, but Remas Ventanus survived.

"You have over 30,000 men, which is good, at least much better than my situation, Captain Van Cleef. I only have 421 Ultramarines and 317 Skitarii, and we are near the assembly point in Rhode. I must warn you that the Word Bearers have somehow reached Calth, and you must be careful of them! They--"

The other end of the voice communication suddenly fell silent.

"-What are they?" Van Cleef asked. He knew it was cruel, but he believed that Ventanus could still survive it.

"They are different from before, Captain Van Cleef." Ventanus said with a deep breath. "I don't know what happened to them, but they look like fucking monsters now."

"I understand. Can you send a map of Cowes through the communication network? I need to know how far away Roude is from us. I will ask the fourth company to go to support you."

"I will try my best, but if the data transmission is unsuccessful, you can go southwest from Pro City. There is a river there. Just walk up the river. I hope the river is still there."

"Understood, keep fighting, Captain Ventanus."

"You too, thank you, Captain Van Cleef."

No need.

Van Cleef hung up the communication and looked at the technical sergeant.

"Continue to try to rebuild the communication network and send people to repair the equipment. I will try to build a feasible communication network in a short time based on Prolo. Once the communication network can be barely used, you will immediately send the internal communication channel code of the legion. Give it to Captain Ventanus and let him access our communications network."

"Understood, company commander."

"Molets!"

"I'm here, company commander." His adjutant stepped forward and handed him a combat knife.

Van Cleef took it with his backhand and inserted it into his armed belt: "You lead a thousand people to garrison the city of Plo, and I will catch up with Siani and go with them to Roude province. Who is leading the fourth company that is advancing the fastest now? "

Molec lowered his head and adjusted several data on the data pad in his hand: "It's Shen."

"Very good, send him the approximate coordinates of Rude Province, and tell him to rush to the assembly point in Rude Province as quickly as possible. Where is Angel Tai?"

"He is operating with Sergeant Severtalion's detachment."

Van Cleef shook his head: "Tell him about the Wordspeaker, and tell Severtarion that I want him to keep an eye on the Sons of Aurelion."

"Understood, company commander," Morets said. "I hope I only have to repeat this to you tonight."

VanCleef smiled silently in his helmet.

You can wish all you want, Moretz, but I would wish for something else. he thinks.

——

004.M31, Calth Ground, Leptis Numinas.

Marius Gage led his troops into the old governor's palace. He had never been here before, and now he wanted to break through the walls and enter the palace underground.

Kaos needs to rebuild the communication network, but most of the equipment and networks have been damaged in previous disasters. Those that are lucky enough to be intact also need to be restarted on a large scale due to the impact of violent electromagnetic waves to avoid the impact of invalid codes.

This is different here. There are two old and complete communication systems stored in the underground of the old governor's palace, and they are absolutely shut down when a disaster strikes. He had to reboot them and make these two old sets useful again.

As long as the ground communication network can be rebuilt, Gage has absolute confidence in victory. This is not some early declaration, this is a rational deduction based on facts and figures - Calth will win, they will win, and the Word Bearers will die.

All will die.

He rushed down the safety stairs, and a man wearing the blue and white uniform of the security director met him. His face was completely black, and one of his arms had disappeared, but his words still sounded clear.

"Sir, we need energy, but there is not enough electricity. The six power plants in the city have been bombed and destroyed. The underground backup energy has been activated, but it can only ensure that we can support the defense system and basic life support systems. We want to restart those two systems. Equipment, we need more power!”

"Tell me what to do." Gage stopped and said calmly. "Don't tell me the target or how difficult it is, just tell me the location and the target."

"Okay, okay." The man was stunned for two seconds before he remembered what he should do. He took Gage to a cogitator array. The thing was obviously operating overload, and the heat it emitted made the heat dissipation pipes turn red.

The security director tapped the meditator's screen unskillfully with his remaining left hand. A few seconds later, with a strong sense of delay and lag, a map popped up.

The security director raised his hand and pointed to several highlighted nodes: "Do you remember the underground cave network in Cowes? Look at these places. We originally planned to build these places into new residential areas, so we A full set of automatic power generation equipment is installed in these places.”

"How many sets do you need?" Gage asked, still remaining calm.

"One set is enough!" The security officer raised his finger, his eyes widened and filled with bloodshot eyes. "Just one set, my lord!"

"Okay," Gage said. "I'll come back with three sets."

He turned and left, followed by five hundred people.

——

004.M31, Calth Ground, Nared City.

Orpeson took his fist and struck a traitor on the head. The guy's body shook a little, nothing more, but that was enough.

He seized this opportunity and threw the man to the ground. Something not far behind him caused an explosion and loud noises continued. Orpeson grabbed the man's throat and did not let go until he died. .

The wind was howling all around, and the scene inside the city was not necessarily better than outside the city. After he finished dealing with the guy, he stood up, turned around and picked up the gun that he had dropped on the ground during the sudden attack.

This is a Tejas IV laser rifle, modified by the Veridian Foundry. The folding stock stabilizes the barrel, making it light and strong. It even comes with a detachable bayonet, which is surprisingly easy to use.

This was originally a weapon prepared for the orcs by the army gathering centers in various continents, but now it is used on humans.

Wait, are they really still human?

Orpeson stopped and looked down at the bastard he had just strangled to death. The skin is pale, the ribs are turned out, and the facial features show obvious signs of atavism. There is an eight-pointed star carved into the bone on his forehead, and his chest is covered with freshly peeled human skin.

Humanity?

'Pious Orr' closed his eyes and his cheeks twitched. He held the gun and left here, walking into the thick fog. The explosions continued, but there was a thick fog in the city, and it was bitingly cold.

This was obviously not normal, but he didn't really care. He carefully walked back against the wall with his gun in hand. After climbing over two collapsed walls, he entered the basement of a tavern.

There were four people waiting for him here, two soldiers and two civilians. The two civilians were locals from Nared, one was an accountant and the other was a tailor.

Two soldiers from the 61st Company of Numinas had escaped from the army assembly area and had been begging Orpeson and them to go back to their commander to assemble the troops.

"How is it?" Soldier Laners asked. He stood at the door of the basement holding an engineering shovel and asked in a low voice.

"It's a mess out there," Orr Persson told him. "There are still things falling in the sky, but I don't see half of our planes in the sky. And there is fog in the city."

"Fog?" Soldier Talson repeated doubtfully. "What's so strange about fog?"

"I hope there's nothing surprising about them," said Orr Persson. "We'd be lucky if they were just ordinary fog, but unfortunately that's unlikely."

"I don't understand what you mean by the fog, but it's probably dangerous outside." Soldier Laners said. "This means we should go back to find my commander, Sergeant Herlock. When I was swept away by the water, I vaguely heard him issuing assembly orders on the other side of the river."

He waved his arms, trying to show excitement: "The 61st Company of Numinas will regroup, and we will kill all these bastards, Orpeson. You know my commander He Locke? He is a brave man and he will lead us to kill all the enemies."

Orpeson did not answer this sentence. He just sat down tiredly against the wall of the basement of the tavern, the silver cross on his chest shining.

Good luck to you, Sergeant Hurlock.

He lowered his head, looked at the cross, reached out to hold it, and began to pray again.

Dust fell from the top of the head due to tremors, and a dull explosion sounded from not far away, like thunder. Soldier Laners and Soldier Talson whispered endlessly about their vision of returning to the Army Assembly Hall.

They are already crazy, but they think they are not. The accountant and the tailor hugged each other, a man and a woman, fear spreading on their faces.

Orpeson began to gnash his teeth.

Fuck, God.

He raised his hand and held the cross close to his eyes.

If you hear this, tell me, what is going on?

——

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

Robert Guilliman entered his lounge on the bridge.

He had just returned from a command battle in which Macragge's Glory destroyed three Word Bearers cruisers. It sounded like a great success, but it was a pity that he actually didn't care much about it.

For Guilliman at this moment, only by personally killing the thing occupying Lorgar Aurelion's body can his anger be subsided.

Other than that, everything else is just an appetizer before the main meal.

The Glory of Macragge is re-adjusting its course to return to the frontal battlefield. The orbit and starry sky near Calth have been completely affected by the war. War is everywhere in the starry sky, so a rather counter-intuitive theory was born.

In battleship versus battleship battles, the higher the intensity, the more chaotic the battle situation, and the more thinking time you get.

Every step these behemoths make in the dark vacuum takes time, restarting propulsion engines, turning, closing void shields somewhere to take damage, charging tactics, activating macro cannons.

Time, time, time.

Time passed by minute by second, and four hours and fifty-one minutes had passed since the war officially started, and soon it was five hours. What can you do in five hours?

It can make an Astartes army clean the surface of a certain planet, it can make countless loyalists fighting for the Empire die in sudden attacks, it can make millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions or even billions of people die. People died in the explosion

Five hours, enough to break Robert Guilliman's heart.

He stood in the lounge, opened his arms and let the servitor change his power armor. There was a mirror placed in front of him, which was a gift from Tarasha Yuton after one of his triumphs.

A full-length mirror large enough to accommodate the original body, so huge and luxurious. The man in the mirror looked tired. His eyes were staring blankly ahead, without focus.

A few minutes later, the servitors finished putting on his armor. The power armor itself began to hum, and that familiar heaviness returned. He waved the servitors away and stood in front of the full-length mirror.

His expression was so cold, without any fluctuation.

Half a minute later, Robert Guilliman walked out of the lounge, sword slung at his waist. Captain Zedov informed him that Macragge's Glory had received a communication request from the Law of Loyalty.

From Lorgar Aurelion.

Robert Guilliman stood on the holographic projection platform. The white light representing the establishment of communication flashed away, and electromagnetic signals began to surge in the air. The light curved to form images, and Lorgar Aurelion emerged with its surge.

He wore scarlet armor, his face shrouded in shadow. His eyes shone like two torches in the shadow.

"I will kill you." Guilliman spoke first. "It's not Luo Jia, it's you. Do you understand? No matter who you are or what you are. I will tear you apart, and I will turn every bone of yours into ashes."

Lorgar Aurelion smiled: "Do you know who your tone sounds like now? I have to admit that with this soft, whisper-like tone, you remind me of Konrad Curze."

"Is this the only thing you can do? Use a malicious tone to mention my brother's name to me. Is this the only thing you can do?"

"I still have many ways, but what I want to do most now is to talk to you." Luo Jia said sincerely, his face was still obscured by shadows, and the torch was bright, like a whirlpool.

"I will not accept your surrender."

"No, listen to me, Robert. Your little empire is located on the edge of our world, and you always like to stay here and run it. Sometimes I think you are just a child, playing with glass gems in a castle made of sand, childish , pitiful. I have expressed this view before, you should remember the perfect city, right?”

A trace of doubt emerged in Guilliman's heart - this thing has Lorgar's memory?

"I am him," the man said with a smile. "Can't you see? Look carefully, what's the difference between me and him? I am him, I am all of him."

"You're nothing but a liar."

Luojia laughed.

"Okay, liar." He shook his head. "Is this what you finally came to? Is this what you said in anger to me? A liar? You could have said something worse, Robert?"

Guilliman looked at him coldly and said nothing.

"But it doesn't matter, I just want you to hear the truth. I know what you will call us to your heirs and crew, you will call us traitors, traitors, but that is not the case. You know the first one Who is the traitor, Robert? It is the Emperor, who betrayed us first."

Luo Jia's tone finally changed, from soft and happy to full of anger, and even her voice became hoarse.

His image jerked towards Robert Guilliman, and the Primarch heard the sound of gunshots - he knew what his guards were doing, they were on alert for the shadow of Lorgar Aurelion, and instinctively thought This shadow can harm their primarch.

This is what the Primarch can do.

"Lies," Guilliman said.

"No, I didn't. If you had seen what I saw with your own eyes, you would know that I didn't. Horus also saw it. Do you want to call him a liar? Huh? Wolf God, Warmaster, you want to Treat him as a liar?"

"Lies." Guilliman looked down at him.

"This is not a lie." Luo Jia gritted her teeth and made a sound from her throat.

"What your father told you was a lie, what the Emperor fed you was a lie. What a contradiction he did, huh? He refused to be called a god, yet allowed me to preach. He told We said we were his sons, but what did he do? Where are our two brothers, Robert?"

"Lies." Guilliman sneered. "Go on, Luo Jia, everything you said is a lie."

Luo Jia's shoulders trembled, and a few seconds later, he also sneered. He stepped back to get a good look at the Lord of the Thirteenth Legion, and then he smiled again.

The mantra bearer roared.

"You think you are a wise man and a prophet, but in the end you will find that you are actually the most stupid person! Horus will rise, he will pull the Emperor from his throne, cleanse the lies, and baptize the galaxy with fire! And! You and your world will die, Robert Guilliman, and everyone in the five hundred worlds will become a corpse!"

"Everyone can tell lies," Guilliman said. "Besides, there are only two of you."

"two?"

Luo Jia's face was weirdly distorted, and he chuckled, his laughter was extremely weird. He was roaring just now, but now he was laughing so hard that it was so crazy that it made people feel physically uncomfortable.

He laughed wildly, and the light that made up his body began to change and change drastically. Something was about to break out of it. Guilliman was sure that he had seen it correctly, but at this moment, time stopped for a moment. , the world fell into darkness.

The holographic projection platform and Luo Jia's weird laughter gradually faded away, and a gloomy dark blue slowly bloomed in front of his eyes.

Guilliman recognized him immediately.

"Fel? Fel Zalost of the Eighth Legion?"

"My lord." Fehr bent down to greet him. He was not wearing a helmet, his orifices were bleeding, and his eyes were burning. "I finally contacted you."

"What's going on? Where are you?" Guilliman asked, his calmness at the moment was simply puzzling.

This kind of transcendent reason was completely inconsistent with the anger in his heart. He seemed to suddenly become two people. One person is responsible for fanning the vengeful rage in his chest, while the other person is responsible for talking to Felzalost rationally and calmly.

"I am in orbit on the night side of Calth, sir. We wanted to help you, but we are not coming in a large force, and even joining the naval battle will not be able to help you. So we went to the surface of Calth to help you Heirs to rebuild the terrestrial communication network.”

"How many people? How many of you are participating in the battle at Calth?"

"Thirty-five thousand people, my lord."

"Where's Conrad?"

"My lord is still in Nostramo."

"Turn back."

Without any hesitation, Robert Guilliman said this, his voice sounding almost like a command. When he was talking to Luo Jia just now, he looked stern and did not show any weakness. But at this moment, he was hunched over, his face was pale, and his voice was hoarse.

"Set back to Nostramo immediately, Fell. Tell my brothers that I thank him, and tell your brothers that I thank them too, but you must turn back and warn him, tell him—"

"—I'm afraid I can't do this, my lord." Fell interrupted, and he took a deep breath. "But there is no need to do it. We are here with the orders of Konrad Curze."

"What?" Guilliman was stunned. "His order? He knows about this?"

"It's just a guess, sir, it's just a guess." Feier took a deep breath again, and more blood began to flow out of his seven orifices.

"My original body has never been an optimistic person. He is very pessimistic about everything. And he also has a cursed talent, which may explain one or two. But this matter is not your most important concern now. Yes, I’m going to say some things that you need to keep in mind.”

"Say." Guilliman clenched his fists and remained calm.

"In another minute, this place will fall apart and a host of daemons will appear on your bridge - supernatural beings, monsters, entities that eat human flesh and can be harmed by chainswords and bolters. Lorgar Aurelion The second communication was a trap. Something came along that signal. I should have informed you earlier, but someone was blocking me."

Feir began to speak faster and faster, his face began to become paler and paler, turning into a terrifying, almost transparent color, and his eyes were turning into ashes.

"Kill them, my lord," said Fell. "Kill them all."

The darkness disappears and light comes. The world in front of Robert Guilliman began to slow down. This was not because of his abilities, but because Felzalost was using some method to provide him with the final help.

He saw the holographic projection table, and a monster emerging from Lorgar Aurelion's projection, a black nightmare.

Its eyes were dull and reflective, its skin boiling, its bones growing, its mere presence beginning to damage Guilliman's eyes.

Roboute Guilliman holds the sword.

The world returns to normal.

The thing began to laugh maniacally, the light behind it still distorting.

"Robert Guilliman—!" it roared.

"Death." Roboute Guilliman drew his sword.

——

004.M31, Cous ground, plain of Rude department.

"Fire." Shen said.

His squad responded immediately, and the deadly barrage of fire began to crush the oncoming cultists like wheat. But they were not what Shen was worried about. He raised his head and observed the dissipating thick fog while maintaining the rate of fire.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the Word Bearers, who relied on the cultists to absorb the first wave of firepower, launched a charge.

Shen smiled cruelly, and the heavy firepower that had been prepared finally showed its fangs at this moment, and the Word Bearers began to fall - or were beaten into pieces of crimson flesh that splattered everywhere.

Unfortunately, this was not the end. More Word Bearers rushed out of the thick fog. They raised their guns and began to fight back, chanting evil words loudly behind the corpses.

Shen narrowed his eyes.

He belonged to the fourth company, and his detachment numbered a thousand men. Judging from the current situation on the battlefield, he felt that the number of Word Bearers was about twice as many as them. But it doesn't matter, Ye Ren is always used to fighting more with less.

"Disperse," he ordered. "Prepare to hunt."

The fire net disappeared in an instant, and a thousand sharp blades disappeared. The Word Bearers walked warily across the devastated plains, and the first of their number died somewhere near a pit created by an explosion.

Shen stabbed the latter through the heart with his power sword and spun his wrist with devastating consequences. Starting with him, the Word Bearers began to be attacked constantly, but they were not stupid and soon gathered together in formation.

The leading commander began to insult Konrad Curze and Nostramo with obscene words, and his voice echoed in the thick fog.

Shen smiled contemptuously.

"The only thing they dare not mention is him, which is ridiculous." He whispered softly on the voice channel. "End the hunt, prepare for a surprise attack, and kill them all."

Once again, his orders were followed to the letter.

The Night Blades jumped out of the thick fog that originally belonged to the Word Bearers and approached them with high speed and strange movement. The chain sword began to roar angrily, and the unique slashing sounds of various melee weapons escaped in the bloody wind of the plains outside the city of Rude Province.

In the blink of an eye, hand-to-hand combat begins. Shen rushed towards a Word Bearer, who tried to resist, but to no avail. He could not grasp the direction of Shen's advance at all, and could only watch helplessly as the latter's sword slashed across his neck.

The sound of killing was heard everywhere, and Shen ran towards his next target. This person was alert and knew to use explosive bombs to block the space around him.

So Shen jumped up and charged towards him from the air. The latter raised his weapon to resist the attack, but Shen raised his gun in mid-air.

Ten minutes later, they killed all the traitors.

"Rest where you are and count the casualties," Shen said. "I also want the enemy's. Prepare promethium and burn them all before leaving."

"Understood." The deputy captain of the team said, and three minutes later, he gave the answer.

The Night Blade lost one hundred and twenty-one people and suffered thirty-one minor injuries. More than 2,200 Word Bearers died. Considering the number of people, the sacrifices required for this victory were completely acceptable. The pharmacist began to collect gene seeds, and Shen issued another order.

"Who wants to swear?" he asked softly.

Six minutes later, they were on the road again, hands full.

The corpses of brothers and sisters were buried, and their gene seeds and weapons were taken away. The corpses of the enemy are being burned, and the crackling sounds of the corpses are like singing. The Nightblade's mark was engraved on their commander's helmet and erected on a flagpole.

——

004.M31, Calth orbit, Night Soul.

Fel Zalost opened his eyes suddenly, and his adjutant Adbeman Basili and two medical officers rushed forward and pinned him to the ground and began to perform medical measures. To their surprise, this time, Fair didn't scream.

"Did you succeed?" Adebeman asked doubtfully.

"Yes." Feier replied inarticulately, blood was still flowing out of his seven orifices, and his eyes turned completely gray. Adebeman stretched out his hand and waved it in front of him, and Feier chuckled: "I can still fucking see, Adebeman."

"Can you still see this?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know the reason. I should be blind, but I'm not. Help me up."

The medical officers helped him up, and Feier began to gasp for breath. Blood dripped from his mouth like a wave, which was absolutely horrifying.

"Listen, listen, listen to me -" Relying on the medical officer's support, Feier managed to remain standing. "--Go down and prepare for war. Something is coming, chasing me. They will run out from the bridge or any other possible place to tell everyone to prepare."

"What about you?" Adebeman asked.

"Do I look like I can't join the fight?!" Feier yelled at him. "In the name of the Lord of the Night, get my fucking sword!"

9k, updated.

I recommend a book called Hammer Seedlings, 40k: Starting with a Dog. What if Perturabo became a border collie.