Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

The theater under renovation was divided into a maze by scaffolding and indigo curtains, and the reflections of a search party armed with carbines marched on the walls. Tarasha Judon avoided them, relying on her familiarity with the terrain and her relatively nimble legs to escape another group of searchers. When she saw Gloria's guards entering the inner court at the wrong time, she immediately knew she should start hiding.

She wanted to know where Conor Guilliman was. Archon Conor is the one who is not expendable. He made a pact with the Macraggeans to improve their lives, and he made a pact with Robert to watch him grow up.

More than ten years ago, Connor took Robert to hunt under Crown Mountain. The air there was very fresh and the temperature was cool. Connor accidentally cut his arm there, and the blood stained his clothes red. He told Robert not to be afraid, not to cry, that one day all mortals would die but Macragge would stand. Macragge was Robert's eternal haven and invisible family.

So Connaught can't die.

Youdun squatted behind the seat, and then she sat down quietly.

She found herself directly at the back of the theater. If it weren't for the scaffolding and a play was being performed on the stage, it would be difficult to find a more remote location in the entire theater. When Robert was invited to a play and disliked the silly play being performed, Euton could find him in this position, his blond hair standing out more than any source of light.

Eudon had told Robert that if he wanted to obey the rules of politics, he had to learn a set of superficial manners. Robert curled his lips: You don’t even like that.

She heard the sound of musketry outside the theatre, not far nor near. Yudun poked his head out from behind the chair, and the theater was still dark.

When Robert was ten years old, he was not as tall as he is now, but he was already very handsome, and every line just outlined his dazzling image. He fits all the Macragge people's imagination of a handsome young leader, so Macragge invited him to play the role of a young war king who had appeared in history in the play. Robert agreed but regretted it later.

He was at the side of the stage at that time, just behind the stage that was blocked by the golden and blue curtain, holding Yudun's hand. He said it was meaningless at all and he didn't want to perform for these people.

Don't worry, just do it if you're willing to do it. Once you have agreed to this agreement, you cannot ignore what you say. Connor and I are in the audience watching you. The third row in the middle, the best seat, you can see us at a glance.

Robert asked: What's the point of doing this? But he performed very well that day, far better than Eudon and Connor thought, and he was just like a human being.

After the performance, he took off the gilded laurel crown he used for the performance and replaced it with his own green leafy tiara, the leaves matching the upturned hair. Will you still come to watch when I perform in the future, Robert asked. We made an appointment.

Euton smelled the smell of blood burning into her nose from the street outside, and it was not a pleasant smell. She knew the theater couldn't stay for long, but where in the heart of Macragge was safe? What she really didn't understand was why Archon Gloria had the guts to launch a rebellion. Yes, Robert's expedition was his only chance, but how would he face the Space Marine Legion after Robert's return?

When a group of scaffolding suddenly collapsed in front of the theater, Youton took off his noisy wooden sandals and held them in his hands. He stepped on the ground with his bare feet and left silently against the back wall. She couldn't go to the second floor of the theater, that would mean blocking herself in a dead end. She remembered that the theater had a back door and hoped that the key to that door was still in the cracks in the bricks.

Robert could not play with any children during his childhood. That was the period when he was the least human. Looking at Robert's eyes at that time, she always felt that she was actually seeing a machine, an emotionless thinker, coldly dividing the whole world into data.

Konnor once wanted to persuade Robert to go to Macragge's military academy to meet his peers who were theoretically his peers and who might also be his colleagues in the future.

I've read all the books in Deucalion's library, Archon. Robert said, I don’t need to learn ignorance from the ignorant.

Well, Connaugh answered him, remember that theatre, I used to have the master key there, they gave it to me when the theater was built, but now it's gone, do you know where it is?

Robert speculated in many places, and he failed.

In the third column of bricks in the middle row on the right side of the inner wall of the back door of the theater, Connaugh said that the story of the time when Ultramar was still unified was being performed in the theater that day, but our trade and wealth have been in disputes and darkness. It declined exponentially, so I slipped the theater key into the crack inside the back door and walked out, thinking I would never come back. There is no art of war, no reason, no logic. I have never thought of it myself, but this is what a person will do.

Robert didn't react at all that day, as if he was still that exquisite machine, unable to be hurt or frustrated. It rained at night, and Youton didn't find Robert in his room. She chased him into the rain, looking for the golden-haired child in the sound of rain. Just by the back wall of the theater she saw Robert, soaked to the skin, standing quietly by the door, his marble-carved palms covered in mud.

The key isn't here. Robert said. Why did you deceive me.

Yudun accompanies him to search for movable wall tiles that can be shaken one by one. The key is in the gap in the fifth column. Right next to the brick that Robert had just broken.

He misremembered, Robert. He's not young anymore, and that's what a man does. Euton told him.

Robert put the key back into the gap in the third column without saying anything. Even though it was many years ago, Yudun still remembered the way Robert stood on tiptoes. After that she stopped saying that Conor Guilliman had raised a cogitator.

Year after year passed, Robert Guilliman participated in politics and went to war. Then he left home because his real father and brothers came. This is the first time he has been away from Macragge for so long. May you be victorious, Jotun told him.

Yudun hoped that everyone Robert cared about would be there to greet him when he came back, because this was what they had agreed upon. Maybe he would use the memorial garden. The portico there is being expanded and will be visible from miles away. The wall full of inscriptions will encircle an elegant pool. Beside the pool are secluded flower beds and Salamander bluestone floor tiles. White water lilies fall in the pool and rushes sway in the flower beds.

Ah, the artillery fire is going off outside. She always thinks about these things.

She put her shoes back on in the soft dirt and took out the key from the crack in the wall. The peeling back door opened with a loud creak. The theater's main entrance is always open, so it's rusty. She saw smoke rising outside. There weren't many flames, but there was a lot of black smoke.

There are soldiers on Proyana Avenue who are on the hunt. The footsteps were noisy, the doors of every household were closed, and the stoves in the small restaurants that were cooking broth outside were extinguished. The wall was blackened by kerosene. The flag was replaced on the top of the conference hall in the distance. It was a piece of burned cloth hanging heavily. It is impossible to see the stars in today's weather. The bright stars that can always be seen directly are hidden behind the thick smoke. The buildings that Robert and Connor built here are falling apart piece by piece.

She still didn't know where Connaught was. The shadows of the patrols appeared more frequently than themselves, and their shadows seemed to be particularly distorted, like ghosts in ancient fairy tales. Robert was very averse to those unscientific stories.

It seemed like she was the only one left in the world. She was scared, but it was too early to die. Her joints ached because she was not young. She walked in the shadows of the streets, not running, thinking about how to do everything she could. Rebellion. panic. Macragge must survive this. Macragge stood tall.

The barracks are outside the city, and the meeting hall is in the hands of the enemy. She first needed to see Conor's guards, whose camp was within the city. Yodon even saw the soldiers drinking in the market. Where are the Guards now? Stay by Conor Guilliman's side, fight in the Inner Court, or be controlled by Gloria? She needed information, more information.

"Madam!" Someone called her in a low voice in the alley, "Ms. Euton, you are here!"

She saw the shapes of armor on the tall guards at the alley, Connaugh's guards, and she was familiar enough with every one of them. His heavily worn armor showed scorch marks from fire and knife edges from several heavy blows, and the background pattern of the shoulder armor used to mark the production serial number was cut away by the blade.

The guard put away his sword, and his leaning posture was full of caution and restraint unique to war times.

"How is Conor Guilliman?" Jotun asked, not only did he not relax, but he became even more serious. "Guard, why are you here alone?"

"I cannot enter the inner court now," said the soldier. "My comrades are in the fight, and Garland has too much power under his control. Come away with me, ma'am. The nearest point of safety is within half a mile."

"Who told you I was here, soldier?"

"There is no one. I am not missing in the Guard. I have been sent to find you. Time is passing, distinguished housekeeper. Please leave with me."

"What's your name?" Yodon asked sharply. If Robert had the ability to remember the names of tens of thousands of Ultramarines, then Joden could at least remember every face and name in the Mortal Guard.

"I am Manichino, madam. I am very good at hiding and finding. Dear Chief of the Interior, let's leave quickly." The soldier's words became cold and dull, like iron sinking into the shadows on the ice.

He raised his head, and most of his face was stained by the ash from the war, but the shape of his forehead and the high brow bones still had distinct ethnic characteristics. A pair of ruthless eyes lurked in the shadow cast by the brow bone, flashing with the blue-green cold light unique to the polar region.

"Where are you from?" Yudun asked, squeezing his voice out of his throat and feeling his whole body trembling slightly. A primal fear seized her, and she couldn't help but find words to prolong time and regain control of her body.

"I'm from Barsavo," said Manicino. "Don't hesitate, time is running out. Leave with me, madam."

She didn't fall down simply because she was standing so stiffly.

"Where is Conor?" asked Eudon. "Where is Robert?"

"I have no way of knowing, ma'am," Manichino said, his tone tight. His heightened emphasis, and the almost explicit threat in it, instead allowed Euton to rediscover her own place.

Yuden looked at him and took a step back.

"You're so tall, soldier. Almost as tall as those Space Marines."

She shook her head and tried to hold her chest up, even though her tired back was aching.

"Maybe others just think you are a subspecies with peculiar genes, but I will not admit your mistake. Yes, the opponent of the extraordinary can only be the extraordinary. Without the support of the same power as the Space Marines, Jialan does not have the courage to rebel! You use Cunning tricks create chaos and destroy the city, and now you threaten your goals with my life. Your despicability is disgusting, but you will gain nothing from me. "

Manichino restrained all his expressions. In addition to wariness and secret suspicion, the remaining emotions on his face also contained another emotion that made Euton even more puzzled.

nervous.

The meaning behind this is far more thought-provoking than the complacency of evil schemes succeeding. If complacency equals danger, then undue tension equals danger of losing control.

"I am Alpharius, ma'am," he said, moving incredibly fast, like a non-existent shadow that disappeared and then reappeared at high speed. Perhaps he relied on his ability to travel within the crisis-ridden city walls of Macragge. "While I cannot deny my involvement, this was not the chaos I planned."

Pain spread over the nerve behind her ear and she was forced into a coma.

——

The Sword of Oath blocked another attack, and the clash of steel echoed through the sanctuary, twisting along the walls with the flickering candlelight. Sigismund swung his sword and struck the enemy in the chest. Blood flowed from his mouth and his vision became blurry. Some strange rustling sounds lingered in the gaps between the clashes of weapons, disturbing his mind.

This battle was full of pure disadvantages for him. The Sword of Oath had no edge, and the bolter he had snatched from the enemy a few seconds ago had been empty and fell to the ground along with the fragments of the ceramite armor on his body. He must find every mistake and weakness of his enemy and disarm him. And when he blocks an apparently fatal attack, what he will do immediately becomes ending the life of the other person, no matter who they are.

Although these warriors wear Astartes armor, their fighting style is quite strange, neither light nor heavy, and there is a different kind of cruelty and brutality infused into their movements. Their physical strength and toughness seem to be bottomless, but their fighting skills are almost non-existent, and they especially like to aim at his head. Sigismund grasped the characteristics of their fighting and calmly continued his battle. His combat proficiency increases rapidly with every attack and defense.

A collision of blades knocked the Sword of Oath and the opponent's power sword away at the same time. Sigismund waved his hand back, and the iron chain wrapped around his arm drew a long arc of steel, hooking the Sword of Oath and bringing it back to the uninstalled energy field. of power sword. He grabbed the back end of the sword blade with his bare hands, held the sharp blade in his left palm, spun towards a warrior, and the tip of the sword penetrated the outer armor that had been cracked by the previous blunt blow and penetrated the torso.

He did not pierce the skin, bones, powerful muscles or modified organs. In fact, his sword fell into a space that was more filled with gaps and interlaced pipes. The piercing sound was like the collision of metal and hard bone. At the same time, a huge force from another attacker knocked Sigismund hard to the stone ground from the side.

He stopped rolling and adjusted his position, holding his hand armor on the side of the ceremonial round platform in the center of the church.

There was no blood in the body of the person who had just been pierced, and he did not even suffer any damage that could be called injury. The outer armor on his body began to peel off, and at the same time, something else began to fall outwards.

The rustling sound became louder and louder.

Sigismund stood up quickly, holding his swords in both hands. The moment his palm left the round platform, the hidden button was released, and the church door crashed down.

He gave himself thirty minutes before the ions and fire destroyed the entire confined space.

——

Angron let go of his hand, just like he did at the end of previous battles, and subconsciously shook away the acid and sticky meat attached to his giant palm. A pool of pale acid was thrown onto the table, quickly causing a large area of ​​corrosion.

He knitted his eyebrows and stared at the pile of biological debris at his feet, which was a mixture of weird necrotic worms that were still wriggling and an indistinguishable fungus-like flesh. He stood there without moving.

"Kahn!" he called toward the door.

The iron door automatically slides sideways. After the responsibilities of Legion Master and Primarch were re-split within the World Eaters, Karn, the first Legion Master, appeared at the door. Apparently, he rushed to the door as soon as the fighting broke out indoors and started waiting.

"Father." Kahn said, his eyes falling on the pile of things crushed by Angron.

"Help me find someone to clean it up." Angron said, "You can go to the database to see if you can find the origin of this alien form. They are composed of a large number of worms entangled with each other, and contain a large number of hoses, strong tendrils, and bones inside. Blades and unknown beam weapons rely on some immature biotechnology to forge human shapes. The hidden emotion in their hearts is hunger.”

"I would like the Eighth Company to join me in landing on Macragge. What do you think?"

"Prepare the drop pod." Kahn said, turning on the communication array.

The alien in this chapter is from DH, with some minor changes. If you are interested, you can guess what it is.