Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

Ignoring the noise caused by the unexpected appearance of the orcs, Calvin turned his attention back to his previous thoughts:

"How did you feel?"

Calvin lowered his head and put a cut steak into his mouth, and asked Golden who was sitting opposite.

"I do feel a sense of oppression. Similar to the proper name shown in the information, what is it? Gestalt?"

Golden's mouth was not idle either. After hearing Calvin's question, he slowly swallowed what was in his mouth and recalled the situation at that time.

"I noticed that Interceptor Squad had very little intrusive use of psionic discipline before the Warboss was killed. Why?"

Calvin turned his attention to the other squad leader sitting next to him, Alexei, who was also responsible for leading the interceptors in this operation.

The latter gave the same answer to Calvin's question.

"This ultra-complex environment with bulkheads everywhere on the spaceship has very high requirements for the use of teleportation. And we did feel the Gestalt-like force field interference at the time. Considering that the battle situation was not necessary, I No risk taking. If you have a problem with this…”

"No, no, no, I have no objection. You are doing the right thing." Calvin quickly stopped the other person's thoughts.

"In fact, you did a very good job. For these orcs who don't really have a large scale, conventional tactics are enough. You don't need to take risks at all. Let's just talk about this position."

Considering the number of times they cooperate with each other is still too little. To avoid misunderstanding, he once again added to Alexei and emphasized the tone of this conversation.

"Thank you for your understanding. Well, based on our feelings at the time, before the leader, the WarBoss, was eliminated, the effect of the orcs' position was indeed obvious. And it must be said that our previous melee weapon - the Valkyrie of Vengeance The effect is not ideal.”

Under Calvin's emphasis, Alexei confirmed the other party's intentions, and then discussed the specific gains and losses of the battle in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Oh?" Calvin was very interested in this. He reconfirmed to Golden:

"Is it the same over there?"

"Yes. The killing effectiveness of the melee weapons of the Valkyrie series has indeed dropped significantly."

Golden put down the wine glass he had just picked up and answered Calvin's question.

"What's the reason? Do you have any specific guesses?"

"Yes!"*2, Golden and Alexei replied at the same time.

"You said"*2, two people spoke at the same time again.

The two people looked at each other and smiled. Golden, who had a higher military rank, said to Alexei:

"Say it."

Calvin also smiled and nodded.

"Tell me about it, Alexey."

"Okay, let me tell you." Alexey said. After he lowered his head and reorganized his words, he gave Calvin a completely unexpected point of view in a decisive tone:

"After the specific killing effect was completed, under the full observation from a psychic perspective, we confirmed that the specific killing effect of the weapon was entirely composed of physical damage. In other words, this group of "artificial" creatures have no individual soul at all. !”

"Huh? No soul?"

Regarding this conclusion, Calvin also had some vague conjectures and premonitions, because this could explain many previous doubts.

But again, after explaining some problems, this conjecture also created new problems.

"So what's their position on spiritual energy? How can spiritual energy come from without a soul? How to explain this?"

Calvin asked subconsciously, and then he shook his head.

How can we expect the other party to be omniscient and omnipotent to give an answer immediately? There are so many unknowns in this universe, and human energy is absolutely limited.

But what is unexpected is that Alexei really knows something. At least his observation of the orcs is more detailed and thorough than Calvin imagined.

Alexey seemed to have anticipated Calvin's questioning. He took a break in speaking and picked up the wine on hand to take a sip. Then he answered Calvin's question unhurriedly. Previous topic:

"That's why we say that what they don't have is the individual soul!"

"Individual..." Both Calvin and Golden murmured this adverbial word in High Gothic.

"Yes." Seeing that the two people were already thinking in this direction, Alexei decided to use his understanding to give them a further boost.

"They are individual, they do not have individual souls. But when there are leaders, they have complete souls as a group! In other words, except for a very small number of elites, most orcs' souls do not have a Waaaaah position. That’s what’s missing!”

"So as you said, what is the significance of the elite unit Orcs?" Calvin asked along this line of thinking.

"Carrying this soul? But it happens to be not enough to fully play the role of the soul. So only when the number of groups under his command is enough to share the load for him, the soul it carries can fully play its role." Alexey Add your own opinions.

"Got it," Calvin said.

This can explain why once they enter a tribe or larger group, the aggressiveness and wisdom of the orcs will increase exponentially. On the contrary, lone orcs will completely lose the violence and cunning for which they are famous.

"How do you know? It's just based on one or two battle observations, but it's difficult to draw such a profound conclusion!

Calvin had some respect for the noncommissioned officer in front of him, and his answer confirmed his suspicion:

"Looking at the data, there are records of their observations in the Titan database. Their peak civilization was based on an uncountable number of low-level orcs. For example, the Orc War was the one on Terra. They They even have their own empire and have sent envoys to Terra to persuade them to surrender. Looking at these things that are still in the tribal era, do you really believe that they are the same race? "

"So, the evolution of technology and wisdom of this race is not based on the time dimension? It is based on the absolute underlying base?" Calvin came to this conclusion seriously.

"Yes, and the more there are, the more things they can do with their psychic stance. And similar to but different from the Tyranids, their gestalt is more active and disordered."

At this point, Alexey looked at Calvin, who was still thinking. He thought about it carefully and decided to speak out his thoughts:

"When I was on the battlefield, I sensed your will and seemed to be trying to learn them."

"Well, yes. I know it's a risky move..."

Calvin woke up from his thoughts and felt that he needed to explain his behavior to the learned master chief.

"No, no, no, no..." This time, the person who was afraid of misunderstanding turned around and became Alexei, interrupting Calvin's speech.

He put down the tableware in his hands, wiped the napkin from the corner of his mouth, and looked at Calvin seriously:

"Listen to me, young arbiter. In the past few thousand years, you are not the first person to observe and try this, but you are the first person to try and get results."

Having said this, Alexey looked at Golden and Tarik, who had been sitting aside, then stretched out his hand to press Calvin's shoulder, approached his face and said:

"Whether it is Tyranids, orcs, or us. If we want to realize the active application of group will on the battlefield, we are faced with the problem of specific individuals to carry the overall consciousness. Tyranids chose to let the huge but unintelligent mothership To bear this pressure; most orcs become crazy under such pressure. And you, I don't know your reason, but I did not know such a secret at a certain point in time. I feel that under your leadership, our will has collided with them. This attempt is indeed very clumsy, but I have to say that it is a great exploration for us.”

He looked meaningfully at Golden and Tariq, who were already nervous, and said with a smile:

"Let me tell you first, this is not a secret. The Gray Knights present at the time were all members of the group, and you can't shut them all up. And we have made similar attempts, but they were all limited by the fact that the soul could not bear the pressure. Let's just try it briefly. The group strengthening technique in the commandments you know is a product of this, so don't worry about whether it is correct. What I want to say is, cherish your existence, your specialness may save you on a certain battlefield in the future. More lives; keep trying and let your talents make up for what we humans lack here."

After saying that, he stood up, greeted the three of them, and left without looking back.

The remaining three people looked at each other in silence, and then Tariq asked somewhat melancholy:

"The Emperor's blessing, my dear Titan. With the pace of things you do, how long do you think we can keep this secret from these warriors?"