Warhammer: Start with a dog

Chapter 433 Opportunity-

Fulgrim returned to his cell obediently under the gazes of the Iron Hands who almost sprayed plasma at him along the way.

Then, after counting 1,200 heartbeats in the dark and completing the work in his hands, he moved his body and quietly slipped out of his cell again through the narrow maintenance pipe in the room where the cleaning servitors were cleaned.

Although he knew that if he left here now and was discovered by the Iron Hands, it would probably only make things worse, but sitting and waiting for death was definitely not the style of the Purple Court Phoenix.

He precisely controlled his muscle movements and steps, tiptoeing like a flexible reptile to "swim" through the low space under people's feet until he came to the single cell area where the prisoners were held.

This area is located in the middle of the lower side of the Lakuan Conquest Hall. Unlike those "relatively normal" warbands that use a large number of mortal officers, marines and servants, the Lakuan clan has deployed a large number of highly modified servitors, heavily armed guard servitors and a few technical sergeant brothers to carry out security and technical management of the middle and lower decks.

Recently, due to the reawakening and more requirements of the ancient Conquest Hall, the technical sergeants are even busier to repair the newly appeared alarm points, and the space available for operation between the people working here has become much more ample.

The advantage of using servitors and machines in large numbers in the supervision area is that they are generally firm enough to be inflexible and not soft-hearted, and are very suitable for guarding work. When necessary, they can blast jailbreakers or those who try to escape into meat pulp.

Their programs are hard-coded to immediately shoot at all cells if someone comes to destroy the cell facilities to ensure that the prisoners are killed and cannot be kidnapped. If humans perform these, there may be unnecessary delays, vacillations or hesitations.

Besides, the machines were not easily tempted and shaken by the sounds that were still coming from the cell intermittently. The downside was that the fact that the servitors were not living people with subjective initiative and were very stubborn was fully confirmed here - for example, now.

Fulgrim emerged from the shadows and took a cautious step forward, just outside the range that would trigger the alarm of the servitors, and then showed the identity data chip hidden in his palm, which had been modified as much as possible as needed, to the mechanical scanning eye of the authentication servitor embedded in the cell door, which was flashing a dangerous red light.

Obviously, although he had just had a not very friendly but finally progressive "communication" with Ferrus Manus and his descendants in the throne room of Ferrus Manus, Fulgrim's seemingly impulsive behavior of rushing out of the ear chamber was not just because he wanted to stop the advice and accusations against him to execute all the prisoners immediately.

His perfect control and speed were enough for him to quickly snatch a small fingernail-sized identity data chip from the data board and parchment documents on the edge of Manus's desk as he passed by.

He had noticed this little detail when he was summoned several times before, and he seized the opportunity as he wished.

Yes, when Iron Captain Ravus thought he had seized an opportunity, he didn't know that Fulgrim had also seized another opportunity, and was obviously more successful than him. If this loyal captain knew about it, he would probably be so angry that he would ask for a death fight again.

Although most private documents can be handled paperlessly with data cables, and the Iron Hands look unruly, in fact, the documents they presented to the Honorable Gene Father are still written meticulously in every detail.

And these documents are obviously all carefully presented, including some file sets that will be intimately sealed with the maker's own personal label to prevent some ignorant Iron Brothers from trying to steal or destroy their full set of information and reports.

- In terms of putting data signature seals on their own files to prevent theft, they really have the legacy of the "academic debate" within the Mechanicus.

A fragmentary thought suddenly occupied his mind, and Fulgrim couldn't help but smile, but soon his beautiful mouth flattened again.

Should he have been familiar with those Om Messiahs...?

These fragmentary information tags that occasionally emerged from the depths of the ocean of memory were sometimes a nuisance. Although they were small and harmless, they seemed to form a dense and endless net, and Fulgrim's soul was now the ignorant prey caught in the net, looking out carefully through the meshes with his eyes.

The threat of the bull and the serpent has always existed, but not now.

No matter what kind of existence gave him this chance to start over again, he decided that he would never make the same mistake again.

One cannot step into the same river twice.

He would get rid of him sooner or later.

The scanning of the authentication servitor ended, the scanning beam was retracted, and its shriveled mouth, which was soaked in preservatives and looked gray and shriveled, opened and closed to spit out mechanical synthesized speech.

+Authentication passed, entry allowed. Do you want to record? +

"Cancel. Do not record my trip."

+Authorization needs to be confirmed again. Higher level code. +

He hesitated.

"Keyboard."

With a light click of the transmission, a keyboard was delivered to him.

He entered a string of code.

+Code confirmation. Confirmation of the highest security level. This visit will not be recorded in the storage. Please note that the current security level of this area is the highest. Do not stay longer than the safe limit. To prevent possible contamination. +

Consider? The cloned phoenix frowned. Shouldn't this be Manus's own security code that has not expired? He had seen it with the corner of his eye before? Why is there a deemed? Is there a security code that is not deemed? In this place, besides Ferrus Manus, the Primarch, who else would use the same level of authority?

But as the adamantium alloy door of the cell in front of him began to slide open to both sides, the smell and sound mixed inside immediately made the young Phoenician put these suddenly emerging problems behind his mind. He hurried into the cell area and walked towards the hot, smelly, and tightly closed cells.

He paused in front of several iron doors and carefully distinguished the movements inside. For a single cell, their soundproofing and sealing measures were actually quite good, but the Primarch's keen hearing and sense of smell made up for this. Then he stopped in front of a door that seemed to be the quietest.

He used the chip and code again, and the cell door opened.

This was a very narrow cell.

Or to be more precise, it could be called a cell for mortals, but it was like a ceramsite and concrete coffin for an Astarte of his size.

The moment the cell door opened, a strong, moist and hot steaming smell mixed with a smell that was a bit like fragrance but more like a foul and pungent smell came to his face, making the lavender eyes blink.

"Flavius?"

No one answered, but a muffled sound from the throat uttered syllables briefly.

He took another step closer. The cell was very narrow, and he could reach the end in just a few steps. After the strong smell faded a little, he saw clearly what the chief of the Phoenix Guard, who used to be "him", looked like now.

"Ah." He didn't know what to say for a moment, and could only sigh with a mixture of worry and joy, and repeated his call again. "Flavius."

The chief of the Phoenix Guard, who had fought alongside him in Byzantium and Walpurgis, had a heavy ball made of some acid-proof compound roughly stuffed into his mouth, so that he couldn't say any blasphemous words or curses. There was also a defensive anti-psychic collar around his neck. His power armor had been stripped off, and his body, which was wrinkled due to a long period of lack of food and water, was tied tightly to a bare steel plate with many thick iron chains.

Judging from other signs, Arkenis may have been locked up in this silent and dark place and gone crazy for a long time since he followed him to the flying fortress and was stripped of his arms and armor.

Because of the sudden light stimulation, the officer of the Emperor's Children raised a pair of wide-open, bloodshot eyes from the gaps in his messy and sweaty hair and looked at the person in front of him blankly.

The iris of the chief guard reflected the flames of the sacred candles lit in the corridor, and his eyes were scattered and almost unfocused.

Fulgrim sighed and began to consider whether the warriors who had occupied Byzas with him with only eight people had temporarily lost their minds because of this mental torture. He might go to the spare target cell first.

But after focusing several times, Flavius ​​Arkenis still saw the face of the visitor clearly.

The light of reason descended on the chief guard with a burst of ecstasy, as if he was a human who had taken the first bite of the fruit of wisdom.

He blinked eagerly and tried to stand up in the direction of the Primarch to show that he recognized him.

"Ah, good, then the... um... uh, acidic saliva in your mouth is a bit too much. Listen, Arkenis, do you remember the time when the eight of us occupied Byzas? Very good. I won't tell you my plan again, you have to concentrate on listening to me next..."

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On the surface of Medusa, the home planet of the Iron Hands, the night is endless.

If you are not a local native or a local, even an Astartes will find it difficult to recognize the change of seasons here.

Although it is unbelievable, since this dark world covered by thick radiation clouds is indeed still orbiting a star and rotating itself, it must have seasonal changes.

Light is not rare here. At least, under the strong wind that can blow the walkers who are not heavy enough to take a step forward and a half step back, the huge lightning produced by the bombardment of high-energy cosmic rays in the upper atmospheric clouds, the ionized particles in the air (Note 1) collide with the unstable airflow, and burst out deadly, gorgeous, frequent and irregular electromagnetic explosions.

Kadan Sturnus, the war leader of the Iron Council, has changed his route and returned to Medusa in advance due to several secret and encrypted messages received.

This disciple of Malkan Ferros had served as the Iron Captain of the Gsakka clan for many years before the Highland Year Rebellion (460.M41).

During the infamous Battle of Corrumus (260.M41), the young Iron Captain was already qualified to participate in the investigation of the Christos Conclave, and since the end of the Highland Year Rebellion, since 760.M41, he has been the stable war leader of the Iron Council - the position of the Iron Hands Chapter Master, which is actually a position of power without name, for more than three centuries.

This makes Cardan Stounus, although not famous at all, one of the only one or two Astartes who can serve in this position longer than his own gene Primarch, and is expected to become another veteran of the Iron Hands Chapter who has broken the thousand-year mark.

If a librarian who came to this universe knew about this, he would definitely say that there is a Blood Angels Chapter Master who would definitely be a good friend of Cardan.

And now, this de facto current Chapter Master, or as the Iron Hands habit calls it, the ancient and wise Astartes is walking on the halls of one of the few permanent fortresses on Medusa.

He was surrounded by many Iron Fathers and Iron Captains. Some members of the Iron Council seemed to have heard some rumors, but most of them just observed the unusual movements of the Lakuan clan and the more unusual actions of the Hammonk clan.

——After all, the fundamental ideological disagreement between the Lakuan and Hammonk clans has been known to everyone since before the advent of Ferrus Manus, but now.

A latest investigation report from their Mechanicus allies has been presented to Cardan Stounus and other members of the Iron Council.

The serious nature of the accusations and the objects is one of the reasons why Cardan hurried back without any objection.

The guardian of the Iron Hands Chapter Reliquary and the General Forge, the guard of the Medusa Relic Gorgon Forge, the caretaker of the maintenance and slumbering places of all the sacred and fearless belonging to the Chapter, the Hammonk clan is suspected of major betrayal.

Considering the titles that the Hammonk clan had been holding, this was actually a terrifying accusation that could not be described as "very serious" but "shaking the foundation".

The Mechanicus's investigation report was actually very detailed, and the evidence was not direct but sufficient. There was no doubt that the Hammonk clan had abandoned the clan gap and somehow connected with the Lakuan clan. The two clans had excluded all their loyal and long-term Martian allies and were taking actions behind the back of the entire Iron Council. The Lakuan clan's Conquest Hall took all their troops and flew out of the Medusa system at an abnormal speed without notification, and went to support the unnecessary battle of Shadenus without even notifying the return, but lost contact for a long time.

There was little time left for Cardan Sturnus to make a decision, because everything guarded by the Hammonk clan was too important, and the Lakuan Conquest Hall, which mysteriously disappeared and reappeared, had just reconnected with him.

If the loss of one-third of the Iron Fathers in the Highland Year Rebellion was still enough for the Chapter to recover, then the first problem with the Hammonk Clan's flaws was not even the loss of so many STC fragments in the Gorgon Forge - but whether the thousands of Dreadnoughts guarded and maintained by them in the Reliquary could still be trusted, awakened, and put into combat.

Splits and even wars caused by different beliefs are not uncommon in the history of the Iron Hands.

But how to deal with the problems at hand decisively and most efficiently at the moment of the storm is critical.

Cold logic currents flowed through the circuit of the war leader's body, which was mostly a mechanical prosthesis wrapped in power armor.

Finally, he made a decision after a few seconds to the Iron Council.

+ Order the Medusa system and planetary defense system to prepare to shoot at the Lakuan Conquest Hall. +

+ You are crazy! ! ! ! ! There... +

+ What's on it? +

The war leader's eyes were aggressive.

The Hastam chieftain of Hammonk, who was being escorted to the center of the hall, suddenly fell silent.

+Nothing. Let's see. Kadan Stunus. I won't clean up your mess for you.+