Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Free chapter·Ordinary daily life in the royal court (from the reader Yuan Tuan Zi Yo)

——This is the work of the reader +Yuan Tuan Zi Yo+, telling the story of an ordinary day in the Eighth Legion. Thanks to this reader——

Each Glory Queen-class ship is the crystallization of the skills of humans, a young race that prospered too early, declined too early, but is now igniting the fire of revival.

Although compared to the streamlined and elegant ships of the Children of the Stars with ether sails hoisted, this huge ship, where one can feel the energy from the crude reactor flowing at super-high speed in countless pipes at any place - or the little midnight ark naively named by the lovely red-haired singer - seems a little rough, Lilia, also known as the daughter of the first pardon, the Baroness of the Red Hand, Lilia Ande Badrol, who gave up her past family name and took the ancient Eldar language "Judgment" as her new surname, the head of the mortal servants of the Eighth Legion, the de facto second-in-command of the auxiliary army, the chief affairs officer of the legion, the jester of the royal court, the first redeemer, still has a heartfelt love for this huge ship.

The reason is simple. Although the Nightfall, like other Glorious Queens, is an industrial masterpiece based on the same STC template and has undergone various personalized adjustments according to the requirements of the user, its sophisticated pipeline system is wrapped with layers of flesh and blood and mechanical fusion structures that are not derived from human technology. The genetic information of these structures came from the selected Blood Orchestras in the Royal Court, including Lilia of course. After sinking her now completely physical body deep into the flesh-and-blood throne made of her own genes, the soft tentacles of the twisted flesh and blood with strong spine tentacles that could move flexibly, redundant and flexible limbs, and extra hands were tightly attached to the flawless skin of her gene provider. After connecting with the additional biosensors implanted under the skin, in the eyes of outsiders, it was not much different from the additional prostheses loved by the biochemical sages of the Mechanic Order, and it might even be softer and more natural. And when the flesh-and-blood tentacles that were wrapped in rubbery outer skin and imitated cables were connected to the countless interfaces on the wall of this cabin that belonged to Lilia personally, the information of the enhanced biological components buried in the sensors, the eyeballs and auditory organs, and the special sensors fused with the machinery would flow into the auxiliary brain on the flesh-and-blood throne, and after unconscious preliminary processing, it would be transmitted to Lilia's brain. It was as if she had merged with this giant beast that crossed the star river.

Who would hate their own flesh and blood? However, Lilia did not set up direct surveillance in the living space of the legion warriors, auxiliary soldiers, and legion servants because of her worship and admiration for the Blood Lord. At this moment, she was particularly glad for her choice.

As for worship and admiration... The First Pardoned Daughter gently rolled her eyes with red irises. Yes, the worship and admiration for the Blood Lord, the cruel mercy, justice, the Lord of Midnight, and the living dark muse still flowed in her heart, but for the pale giant in front of her, who during working hours, slumped his lanky body that was two mortals tall on her favorite Olympia chaise longue, turned it into a small bench, and made the solid wooden chair legs with elegant pastoral scenery relief emit a subtle protest that was not fatal but could not escape her ears. She always felt that compared with the king and gods she should obey, he was more like a younger, intimate but helpless existence. Perhaps this is the inevitable result of living together day and night for so many years.

"So, why are you shorter than before?" This person who avoided many official duties, or rather threw all the official duties that should have been handled by him to the poor legion commander and Lilia in an extremely orderly and fair manner, was cutting countless skull sculptures with a small knife, while lazily disturbing the legion chief affairs officer with irrelevant topics.

"..." While putting the data board on the table, she gently waved her other hand to slide the holographic screen suspended in front of her to both sides. The Bloody Hand Baroness stared straight into the dark eyes of the Lord of Midnight and answered in the same hissing language: "Do you want to hear the rational reason first, or the emotional reason?"

"There are both rational and emotional reasons, worthy of you" The huge and thin body leaned back even more without appearance, with a deliberate expression of listening attentively. "Why not start with reason, because I know you always have a reasonable reason."

"...Humans and Eldar are very similar. Not only in appearance, but also in mentality." While tapping her fingers on the red iron gloves that she took off and placed on the side of the table, the Bloody Hand Baroness's equally deliberate calm voice echoed in the space with only the faint ticking of the logic engine and the humming of the servoskull anti-gravity engine. "In front of an object that seems to be in line with expectations and weaker than themselves, even the administrative officers of the Ministry of Political Affairs will instinctively show a little sense of superiority and self-proclaimed gentlemanly tolerance. That's enough for me."

"What about emotions?"

"I don't want to curl up in the driver's seat of a ground car and put my head in front of the steering wheel in my life."

The pale big hand cutting the creepy crafts couldn't help but stagnate, and then the hissing laughter of the demigod who sat awkwardly intertwined with the humming of the logic engine.

Ignoring the interruptions to her work that appeared in front of her every now and then in the past three days, the Bloody Hand Baroness took up a midnight blue synthetic material cup that had no sense of art and was slightly too big for a mortal and poured it down her throat. The cold synthetic caffeine drink summoned several new holographic screens. Lines of medical data and supply data instantly attracted the giant in front of him.

"The world is short, especially on happy nights. Is this the result of that time?" I asked knowingly. Especially when he started to hang up his book bag in the language of the Eldar, that was when the Lord of the Eighth Legion, who did not want to be the commander of the legion, was really nervous. Although he always likes to flaunt his calmness and impartiality, everyone from the officers of the legion to the beastman servants with goat heads in the engine room who regard the emperor of mankind as some kind of god. Everyone in the expedition fleet has more or less understood the habits of this blood prince who is actually still very young.

"As you said" while twisting his already tired neck, he stretched his hand towards the biological data scanner carried by the servo skull suspended on the side to authorize the file in front of him, because the original gene had been there for several months. Lilia, who was stuck in extra work due to a sudden whim before, let out a long sigh.

"So many?" The culprit's face showed an expression that even as a mortal would appear to be slightly younger than his real age, especially mixed with a hint of indescribable embarrassment.

"It is enough to rejuvenate a naturally aging legionnaire for at least a thousand years, my lord." Lilia replied while typing on the meditator's keyboard in front of her. She coughed lightly and used a business tone to cover up the close relationship. There is a natural awkwardness in discussing certain topics that should be more delicate. "It's inevitable without exploiting torture and pain. Especially in that atmosphere of celebrating victory."

"despite this……"

"On this ship alone, there are half a million regular crew members and about 100,000 beastmen servants, plus nearly 100,000 Sons of Muses, 100,000 other auxiliary troops, and 900 legion soldiers. This result is mine. It's natural to look at." After a gnashing of slightly cynical complaints from across the desk about how superficial pleasures and instincts of the flesh are to fully educated and rational creatures, Chase's reply was immediately swallowed by the complainer. He took a breath of cold air and coughed: "Especially when you announced that you need some samples to prove the correctness of the new surrender bill. Now except... well, let me see, excluding the crew members, the beastman servants In the case of Between the Workers and the Sons of the Muses, you now have between the common humans and us, between the Legionnaires and the common humans, between the Legionnaires and us, between the common humans and the Beastmen slaves, All samples between us and the beastman slaves are based on the characteristics of the legionnaires. Outside the sample group where the legionnaires participate, we have obtained healthy samples of both parents. Therefore, regarding the construction application of the childcare area module, safety. Please give me your permission for the recruitment of reliable professionals and biological sages and related supplies?”

"... For ordinary people, everything must pass. It's a pity! So is there any sin in it? My hand of judgment?" As if to forcefully change the topic back, the Lord of the Night slowly sat upright. Tuck in your lazily outstretched feet. "I only want to be able to prove that my path is correct, but let my royal court... be filled with crying babies after only a few months?"

"According to your rules and laws, all matches are only between people who have... love." Gently chewing the words in Gothic, the Bloody Hand Baroness smiled slightly and deliberately avoided Gemo's words. The dialect word that means 'to submit to the other's will to the point of sacrificing one's own interests', "Low Gothic is so interesting, my lord, in High Gothic, obsessed love, persistent love, dear, Divine love and sensual love each have their own words, but Low Gothic combines so many words into one word... I'm sorry, and please don't look at me with such curiosity. I am serving the royal court. I don’t have time for this... In short, 97.9% of the cases completely followed your rules. Of course, we also found some impulsive behaviors due to alcohol and excitement. Most of them can be forgiven, and a few have no more faults. The punishment was carried out in accordance with fleet discipline, but what I have to report to you is that the use of authority and violent behavior were not completely avoided. About 6 out of 100,000 cases are unpardonable crimes, and the punishment report of the criminal has been submitted before. To you, which...includes several of the first auxiliary and civil officers recruited from Nostramo, whose families will also add additional sins to compensate for the submitted genetic samples have been obtained by the Ministry of Administration and. The approval of the Biology School. Congratulations to you, the legal status of the sons of Muse and servants has been confirmed.”

As if he was reassured by the result of this slightly self-deceptive effort, the thin giant exhaled a long breath, and slumped down on the imperial concubine's couch shamelessly, letting the carved wooden legs creak again. a while. After a breath, he seemed to have thought of something, and opened his thin lips again: "Then, please also report the recent details of the new surrender bill and our trial. Baroness." After a long pause, Lilia's eyebrows At the moment when he was about to reach a dangerous angle, he added the second half of the sentence without any guilt: "I received the report, but I didn't read it. After all, I have so many criminals to punish, and I also want to see Wei Wei. Kurt's report."

Being ambushed, the Bloody Hand Countess could only sigh as she pulled out two Ministry of Interior data boards decorated with gold-plated brass and cultured wood from under the pile of documents and connected them to the projection device. A star map of the star system surrounding the twin stars. and a holographic scan of a roll of parchment instantly filled the space in the room.

"Details of the new surrender act of the Ministry of Interior 844M30 , with the permission of Malcador, the Imperial Regent, and the sanction of the Emperor's authority, amend the Act of Submission as follows:

Surrender is defined as: giving up the sovereignty of a single country, recognizing the empire's sovereignty over all settlements of this civilization, recognizing the Emperor of Mankind as the head of the empire as the head of all settlements of this civilization, and accepting the supervision and supervision of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior. guide.

1. All human and alien civilizations are deemed acceptable by the Imperial Truth Preachers and Ministry of Interior experts after analysis. (See Appendix A-3-H for the standards), you can submit to the empire according to this bill. Those who refuse to surrender will suffer the wrath of the Empire.

2. Any civilization that uses witchcraft and spiritual energy to enslave intelligent life will suffer the wrath of the empire. All customs of ingesting intelligent life include ingesting body tissues of living organisms without depriving them of life. All must be terminated immediately after surrender, otherwise they will suffer the wrath of the empire. This prohibition does not prohibit the ingestion of non-living tissue produced by industrial cultivation that does not create or take away life. The identification of intelligent races is provided in Regulation X-312-ΩΓ.

3. All surrendering civilizations must extradite all armed ships that can travel at faster than light speeds, and all relevant technical personnel to the Imperial Fleet. Armed ships without interstellar navigation capabilities and unarmed super-light speed ships that are allowed to be possessed by each galaxy that submits to the civilization are subject to the Ministry of Military Affairs under the jurisdiction of the mission at that time. The experts of the Ministry of Interior are based on the emperor's just restrictions and are subject to the Imperial Navy. supervision.

4. Any surrendered civilization is allowed to retain its original political system. The space within a radius of 1 light second from the center of each settled planet is an administrative area. If there are other man-made or natural celestial bodies in the planetary system that are inhabited by the civilization's military and civilians. , and the center of mass is within one light second of the center of the planet, it can belong to the same planetary government. If the distance between the centers of mass exceeds one light second, the settled celestial body needs to establish a separate government.

5. The empire will dispatch governors to reside in the star systems of each subject civilization. The governor's responsibility is to ensure the loyalty and civilization of each subject planet. In addition, the governor shall not interfere with each subject planet, and the development rights of each planetary government shall not extend to the center of the planet. A celestial body one light second away. The Governor's tax liability and income are based on the development and utilization of unmanned planets and celestial bodies within the star system. It must not be harmful to the civilization of surrender. This law does not prohibit the governor and the subject civilization from investing in each other's developed assets, but it cannot exceed 45%. Such investment ratios include any form of nominee shareholding and agreements prohibiting concerted action.

6. Each subject civilization must pay tithes at a rate determined by the Ministry of the Interior based on the justice of the emperor, and establish a recruiting station for the Imperial Auxiliary Army. Recruitment propaganda shall not be interfered with, and recruitment of auxiliary troops shall not be forced.

7. Non-human surrendered civilizations must be allowed to immigrate, and those whose natural environment is not a livable environment for humans must be allowed to establish ecological nests within one hundred kilometers around the administrative center by the empire within three Terran solar years. The number of immigrant individuals shall not be greater than 1/2 of the number of indigenous individuals, or the total biomass mass of immigrant individuals shall not be greater than 1/2 of the mass of indigenous individuals, whichever is greater. No less than 2/3 of the settlers are human. "

"Sounds fair. Hmm..." The purring sound from the throat of the young Marquis who seemed to have been greatly satisfied reminded the equally young matron of the afternoon market on the human planet called Olympia. As she sat down to enjoy the planet's mild afternoon sunshine and a delicious hot drink brewed from local plants, it lay uninvited on her lap and on the woolen robe of the Ministry of Interior that she liked very much. The sound of the small animal, which left behind a pile of black and white fur, was scratched by her chin.

Putting these slightly rude thoughts out of her mind, she started her next report with a smile that she couldn't completely conceal. For her lord, this was also the first attempt at his ideals outside of the realms of Eldar and humans.

"According to the new decree, we have included all the worlds of the surrendered Adarnians under the protection of the Legion and appointed acting governors directly managed by the Legion. Because their body fluids can be used as advanced and efficient rejuvenation potions , the number of Adanians has dropped significantly in the half century since the surrender. Currently, all hunting of Adanians has been banned. In return, all Adanian funeral facilities have been provided by the Legion. Management. There are fifteen mechanical mages, six merchants and 13,300 criminals who are still trying to hunt the Adanians after the protection order comes into effect. They have been arrested by the Legion and handed over to the legal department for trial. In addition. According to the previous agreement, a Salamander detachment, accompanied by the troops commanded by Lord Victor, has passed through the webway gate and safe network road of the 154-4 world to reach the Republic of Naiad. That civilization was expelled by us. After arresting the disobedient cabal who had been plundering the local area for a long time, they were very happy to accept the surrender decree. After all, they were originally a peace-loving and uncontroversial race. The arrested cabal members were currently in jail after being handed over to themselves. Lord Victor should have reported to you about the multi-racial civilization called Interx from several human civilizations. It is up to the Ministry of the Interior and the Imperial Mission to decide whether to proceed with peace or diplomacy."

After moistening her throat, Lilia Ander switched the projection to another star map.

"In addition, under the new Act of Submission, the Space Wolves and the Saharduin have reached a temporary truce, and an Imperial mission is on its way. Humans found on Tabius Rasa The colonists and the Drahken tribe formed a symbiotic relationship that was stable and peaceful despite the harsh local environment.”

A hard-light holographic projection appeared on the desk instead of the star map, attracting the attention of the dark eyes of the too-large curious baby sitting opposite the desk.

It was a group of humans wearing rough cold-proof equipment, probably a family, communicating with a group of visiting Astartes wearing iron-gray armor. They faced the huge steel giants with gentle faces, no fear, and friendly attitudes. The only special thing is that, regardless of gender, everyone is carrying a beautiful reptile with six legs, more than one meter long, and a long tail on their shoulders or beside them.

"What is this? A pet?" A pale, slender finger pointed at the reptiles curiously, and the answer was a gentle shake of the head.

"This is the Droken tribe. Although no traces of spaceships other than ancient human immigrants have been found, military scholars have determined that they are intelligent creatures and are alien colonists like humans. However, they have been coexisting with humans for an unknown number of years. ”

An auxiliary psychic analysis document was projected next to the photo.

"The local human population has no discernible Warp influence, my lord. However, the creatures have certain psychic abilities. They can sense and project emotions, and communicate with other beings. The local humans regard them as They are friends who have grown up, or even peers. In some cities, some highly respected Droken people even have quite authoritative voices. They are often local individuals who have lived with high-prestige humans. In order to verify the possibility of psychic enslavement, the accompanying think tanks of the Thousand Dust Sun conducted an analysis and concluded that both sides had little fear of the Astartes warriors. Their free will has not been affected in any way, but the Droken tribe can indeed help the intelligent creatures around them empathize and communicate with each other. At present, the local area has declared surrender, and the symbiotic relationship between the Droken tribe and humans is also considered harmless. but……"

The Lord of Midnight tasted some emotions that he could not ignore from this little hesitation, but he did not say anything, just waiting for the first pardoner who had won his trust to continue speaking.

"According to the ancient legend of the Droken tribe relayed by local humans, the Droken tribe once saw a group of evil angels in the sea of ​​stars. Those angels were very huge. At first they would exert great power, allowing various races to regard them as "

A projection of a stone sculpture replaced the chattering crowd. It was a stone carving carved on rough rock and blurred by years of wind and sand, but the crude and rough carvings still outlined a huge but vague, slightly human-shaped creature, dominating the crawling bodies of countless small races. , an image that exudes an ominous and evil aura.

A line of rough Low Gothic inscriptions read: "Beware! That sinful Nephilim!" It seemed like an ancient religious inscription, but it evoked a memory in the heart of the Blood Marquis that did not belong to him.

"We're going to get busy. Countess." He stood up quickly, and then flowed out of the room like a shadow. Leave only one sentence. "Get ready for the expedition, there are things in this galaxy that shouldn't exist!"

"Yes, yes, my lovely master." Lilia Ande stood up while smiling bitterly and shaking her head. The nerve tentacles on the flesh throne that were almost fused to her skin loosened one by one, and the entire surface of the throne began to wriggle and change color. In just a few seconds, it was impossible to distinguish it visually from an ordinary work chair of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The housekeeper of the Eighth Legion quietly put on the robe of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, put on bright red iron gloves, covered the back half of her head with an external logic engine hood that completely covered her dagger-like ears, sat down again, and summoned countless holographic screens that were turning from green to orange.

The ordinary daily life of the royal court ended. A danger, a threat, and a battle that had to be fought for a better future were calling the souls of every member of the Eighth Legion.

The day of the legion began.