Warhammer: Start with a dog

Chapter 430: The Old Friends Are Gone-

The silver-haired young man kicked the steel wall beside the shaft with a perfectly controlled force. The maintenance slide embedded in the track on it was stuck for some reason and hung in the air.

This kick seemed simple but very useful. With a loud clang and the sound of friction with the metal track, the maintenance ladder slid down from where it was stuck and unfolded in front of the young man.

The young man reached out and grabbed the ladder to try, but did not climb up immediately. There was still about 400 meters above, and he needed to climb two curved ventilation ducts.

He looked around, stuffed the dark red robe, metal mask, breathing hose and other things into an old tool box, and then skillfully hid it deep in the maintenance tool compartment under the ladder.

Then, Fulgrim slightly rolled up the sleeves of his gray work clothes to both sides, revealing his strong but smooth forearms, and began to climb this super-long maintenance ladder with a vertical angle of 90 degrees.

Obviously, there would be no other living people along this route because the length and difficulty of this thing's climb were not designed for ordinary humans. Usually, only maintenance servitors would take off and land along the tracks on both sides of it.

Since it got stuck, this fast passage has been marked as impassable, and even the maintenance team usually bypasses it. Anyway, there are other ways to get there, and using this slide is just a little faster.

But it was enough for young Fulgrim.

He climbed a few steps and stopped, suspending himself in the air, and before his head went deep into the metal tunnel, he used a hand-woven wire ribbon to barely tie his silver hair that was scattered on his shoulders to the back of his perfectly shaped skull. The hair was placed low and rolled into a full bun to prevent it from being caught on the protrusions or nails in the tunnel during the climb.

The last time his hair got caught on the spiral groove of a screw, it was not a good thing. He had to step back and untie his hair from it, but a strand of hair was still pulled out, and now this strand of hair lies in the small bag in his work pocket.

If those few weeks on the Vesalius, from being an infant accelerated into a barely adult, then being able to break the locks and sneak out, wandering the lower floors full of mutant tribes and mechanical equipment, and then sneaking back in and locking the door again, taught Fulgrim something.

One of them must be: don't leave your intact hair or blood-stained clothes lying around, because you never know who will try to get them under the guise of attacking the entire planet or what the person who gets them will do with them as samples.

It has also been several weeks since he became a captive of the soul-adventure saint of "Ferrus Manus", and his growth rate has slowed down, probably because he is no longer catalyzed. Now he has the aging rate of a "normal" gene primarch - in other words, his aging has almost stopped completely, he has the memories of the past, but his body and mind are still constantly absorbing more new experiences and knowledge every moment.

And Ferrus still doesn't allow him to call him brother.

Ferrus, the brother he murdered himself, but strangely, he could even remember instinctively that he had murdered him.

But everyone knows that the original body has become a non-human existence after a certain moment...

So when did Fabius Bile obtain the original body's biological sample and create his own?

He climbed up with ease, like a flexible snake, through the tunnel of the maintenance slide, and then crawled out on the floor of the maintenance room in his room where the cleaning servitor was connected. Finally, he stood in the room and sighed thinking about the whole thing.

Very punctually, he heard a slight movement outside the room, and Ferrus summoned him again.

If it was the original body, even if the relationship was good, I am afraid it would not be able to accept such treatment.

But it didn't matter to him. Anyway, Fabius Bile was obviously his offspring, but he dared to arrogantly let him call him teacher, and he didn't think it was very wrong.

Until the young Phoenix mentioned this incident to the other party inadvertently in the following conversation, and then he was a little surprised to see that this fact caused a burst of steel fury, and Ferrus immediately added the heavy priority mark of the Iron Hands to any other fragment soul missions in the pursuit of Fabius Bile.

Then he was allowed to call him "Manus".

After that, he was caught by the other party and educated for about a whole hour, which was very rare for Gorgon (although he always felt that Ferrus Manus at this moment did not feel like Bromance, but looked... inexplicably closer, more like a brother.).

The main idea of ​​the conversation was that he, Fulgrim, was a Primarch. Although he was not only a traitor but also a murderer of his own brothers, a pleasure criminal and a demon lord of the Dark Prince, as a clone of the Phoenix, he was not someone that Fabius could call his teacher. He should at least be led by a Primarch who was very idle, kind and knowledgeable...

"Is there really a brother in this galaxy who is very good-tempered, can tolerate my existence like you, and is very idle? Manus?"

"You don't have to think about this... We... I will find you a guide who is absolutely suitable for your status," the other party replied coldly, and the silver eyes on the glittering metal face looked into the distance. "But before that, you must be under my surveillance at all times."

"Of course." The young Fulgrim nodded, "Everything that happened on Isstvan V... I have been very sorry about it since I became conscious... Manus, the dead cannot be resurrected... If your behavior at this moment can be regarded as a precursor to our repair of our relationship, then I will endure it."

"Endure? Endure what? Although you are my captive, do the servants here dare to treat you harshly under my strict orders?"

"No, but the treatment of my descendants and cousins ​​who followed me..."

"Ferrus Manus" interrupted the cloned phoenix unceremoniously.

"First, a solitary confinement cell is a good place to sober up these drug addicts. I don't like to see the place where I and my offspring live in a mess. Secondly, those flesh and blood monsters created by Fabius are not worthy of being called cousins ​​by you. He has degraded you too much, to the dust, so that you will listen to him, Fulgrim." The other party shrugged, the fabric of the work clothes rose and fell with his movement, and his expression seemed a little indifferent, "Really? I agree that he probably educated me like this to control me, but I don't think everything is bad, Ma Nus, for example, it was he who brought me back to the Vesalius from the lost incubator and made me grow up quickly, so that I could meet you again here. Isn't this a good thing? At least for me, it is completely like a miracle given to me, Manus, a salvation, a miracle. "

"..."

"Or maybe, it is right for people like me to learn humility before starting to learn pride."

"..."

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I think his last sentence is right. It is always better to learn from losses and belittlement as early as possible.

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But belittling his existence is not belittling the existence of you, me and our other brothers?! Damn Fabius!-

You may not be used to looking at him like this. But isn't this extreme self-confidence, arrogance, obsession and arrogance one of the reasons why the traitor Bayer was favored by the Chaos Gods. It is difficult to find a second guy who is so confident that he can even disdain the things written into the gene seed from the beginning in the entire galaxy.

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Of course, of course, you should be more familiar with the character of this traitor. Old friend.

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I hope so. I don't think I ever saw his true nature when he was my Apothecary's son. Because if I had, I would have purged him from my Legion before he became a space cockroach.

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Good metaphor, my friend, I just never thought I'd hear such... direct words and metaphors from you before.

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Oh, you mean "a little vulgar", right? Maybe this is part of who I am. Gorgon, we are each other's mirrors, and people are also their own mirrors. Reflecting ourselves in ourselves and learning more is a good way to improve ourselves.

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I'm just...

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Unaccustomed to him being a new Fulgrim? Although he is, but not the one you know?

A pulse of emotion similar to a sigh was transmitted.

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There is an access request. Your children are gathered outside the door and want to request a meeting with you.

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Perhaps they have something to report. Let Fulgrim temporarily go to the ear chamber next door to avoid it.

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+Meeting. Advice. Gene Father. +

+I am listening, Alvion of Lakuan. What do you want to tell me about this temporary meeting? +

The sparks that mark the spiritual thinking of the Primarchs are so bright and present in the thoughts of the Iron Council. To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that this is the advent of Ferrus Manus, perhaps many people would choose to believe that this is a form of advent of the God of All Machines.

Huge, profound, extremely complex but rational, all the past and present events are spiritually swallowed up by the Primarchs' thoughts efficiently and coldly classified - since they reported to their Gene Fathers in the past ten thousand years, they have invented and used the Logical Calculation Sage Group, which is rare, and received a "good" evaluation.

Then they saw that it took the Iron Hands Primarch about 0.5 seconds to master this method, and another 0.5 seconds, a new and huge thought set was formed within their link, and it had a semi-automatic evolution function. Any Iron Hands with enough level and computing power to link into this thought set can now easily retrieve all the data allowed by the authority.

Many of these materials are precious ancient documents and original technologies. Even the Iron Hands who have transformed their digestive organs have a long-lost feeling of hunger and thirst.

This is good, but if the price is.

The price was that they had to start to endure staying in the same mobile fortress with one of the leaders who looked like a traitor in every way, the primarch of the corrupted Third Legion, the favorite of Slaanesh and the human-shaped captive of the Dark Prince. Not only did they have to endure the test of not being able to kill him every moment, but they also had to endure the weak behavior of their father who was obviously soft-hearted and really tried to teach people well. It made people feel very uncomfortable.

So before this admonition, all the senior officers on this ship held another high-speed thinking meeting that lasted about 10 seconds.

You see, this is the convenience of the officers of the Iron Hands to hold meetings: they only need a main thinker, some strong enough data cables and some suitable interfaces. They can plug the cables into their skulls or back of the neck spine interfaces, and then they can hold a silent meeting that can be as short as a few seconds or as long as tens of minutes. This silence means that if necessary, they can communicate without saying a word.

Speaking with your own synthetic voice or pronunciation grid is a more cautious traditional and ritualistic practice, usually only used in the largest steel meetings.

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This can't go on! Gentlemen! -

We must advise the Primarch. It's outrageous.

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You are a little impatient, but I understand.

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Perhaps we should continue to observe. So far, apart from always trying to repair all the machines visible to the naked eye, arguing loudly with the Father of Genes, talking back and throwing data boards, this clone captive has not shown more aggressive behavior. My calculation still assesses the danger level of this very low.

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You also said it was "clone". Considering the greatness and uniqueness of the Primarch, it is the crystallization of the great engineering carved by Om Messiah himself, the god of the masterpiece of God, how do you know that he will not have problems after being poorly imitated by the Chaos traitors? -

Considering the behavior of his prototype template on Isstvan V and afterwards, which deserved to be killed ten thousand times by the dead, Ravus's doubts are almost 100% understandable.

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I have to say that the last time I was on duty at his cell door, he was ordered by GeneFather to be brought out, and because there was a small hose leak on my power armor, he asked to stop and let him fix it. It's unreasonable.

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An incident you didn't share with us, brother. I think you need to prioritize this kind of incident again.

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So you let him do the repair for you? Brother. I mean, it's Fulgrim's clone, although a traitor enemy, but also a gene primarch.

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Why not? I don't think such a person will get any respect in our Iron Fortress.

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Well said, brother. Our beloved GeneFather is beginning to show the weakness that failed him ten thousand years ago! He used his death to prove the disadvantages of human emotions, flesh and blood are weak! Great steel!

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So back to the beginning, we must advise on this. GeneFather has summoned this prisoner more and more frequently and for longer periods of time recently.

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I would like to be the first to mention this to Ferrus.

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Arvyn. -

Trazi. As the only Librarian and Librarian in the fortress, you should remind the Primarch more about the danger of this prisoner.

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I still have an important task given to me by Gene-Father, Arveen.

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Monitor other prisoners?

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Monitor other prisoners. The corrupted energy of the warp in them is an extremely unstable and dangerous factor. You just mentioned the unfortunate fact that the Librarian brothers who went on this expedition with Lakuan all died for the Chapter, on the top of the tower of Shadinus, when we faced the Daemon Prince. Now there is only one high-level psyker trained here, if you don't count Gene-Father. Shouldn't I stay up all night and keep an eye on those cells that always make strange noises?

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Agreed. The Unborn should not and are not worthy to set foot here, and we need to be strictly guarded.

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Passed. Is Gene-Father summoning the cloned Fulgrim again?

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Yes. According to the log, one hour and five minutes have passed since the summoning began.

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Can't wait any longer. I'll go now.

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Agreed. We will be with you.

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Then I will continue my mission.

Alvian Raus cleared his speaker grid.