Warhammer Inquisitor

Chapter 302 The Rise of the Primarch: Mars

Mars, the pearl of the solar system, is known as the sister star of Terra. In the entire solar system, in addition to the earth, Mars is another planet suitable for human colonization and habitation, so as early as human beings first stepped into the starry sky, Mars became the first alien colony of mankind.

In the following years, Mars has always played a pivotal role. As early as in the golden age, it was the second most important federal town planet after Earth. It built and gathered the largest, complete and advanced industrial and technological production system in the Federation. As early as ten thousand years ago, Mars was the birthplace of countless technological creations and weapons of war.

In the era of disputes that followed, and the establishment of the human empire, Mars became the sanctuary of human technology and rationality, and the palace of all human knowledge in the entire galaxy. Technology and knowledge helped the Emperor reopen the great prelude to the Great Crusade.

In the Age of Empires, the industrial and mechanical production capabilities of Mars have made great progress. Mechanicists from all over the galaxy have cast the world, and they have to explore the fleet to send precious science and technology, production technology and those invaluable stc casting templates to the world. Here, this makes Mars undoubtedly the most important, largest, and most advanced core casting world in the entire galaxy.

On the outer layer of Mars' huge production system is this huge star ring. It is a giant orbital base station surrounding the planet's equator. Countless orbital defense weapons are arranged on layers of armor. With the ground-based turbo laser cannon pointing directly at the void in front of him, the light spear array is matched with a dense array of automatic turrets and missile launchers to form its defense network.

No one, since the Horus Heresy, has anyone faced and successfully breached the largest and most advanced planetary orbital defense array ever built by the human empire.

Not only that, but it is also the largest and most advanced shipyard in the entire galaxy. Cole has long heard of the shipyard on Mars. When he was very young, he heard it mentioned by the old sailors who came here. They said that this is the A place of wonder, a place of incomparableness that exists only in legends and ballads.

Cole now knew what they were saying was true. The captain stood on the dock deck suspended in the orbit of Mars. He looked through the huge glass wall in front of the star ring outside the window, where countless docks and docks starports were located. In the huge orbital star ring, there are countless large-scale robotic arms, automated assembly arrays and gantry hoisting can be seen everywhere on the ring belt.

Cole looked at the arc-shaped ring in front of him that crossed the orbit of the huge red planet, where countless warships were being produced at full speed for countless hours. Step into the stars to smash the enemies of the Empire with the Iron Man of the Emperor's wrath.

"It's still so unique, isn't it? Every time you look at it, you can feel the power of technology."

Vito came up beside the captain. He was wearing a black Inquisitor's trench coat, with a phoenix sword and a bolt gun slung across his waist. He stood beside Cole and looked at the star port outside the window with the captain.

"Have you been here before? I mean, before the empire was established." Cole looked out the window at the shipyard with dazzling sparks. The sparks that briefly burned in the vacuum after mixing with oxygen were like a dream. Debris of the stars, but disappeared in the blink of an eye on the dark cosmic background.

"Golden age? Of course, I've been here, but Mars wasn't this red back then." Vito looked down at the massive red star below its orbit, Mars, as he literally meant, with a surface completely covered in fire Red, desolate and fiery.

Vito looked at the planet below, and Cole also looked down. The scarlet planet's surface was completely composed of desert, and the red wasteland covered every inch of the entire planet. It was lifeless and hopeless. The entire planet was almost Completely like a dead world.

Cole knew that this was actually not wrong. According to the classification standards of the Empire, Mars is definitely a pure dead world. Its wasteland is full of deadly radiation. Anyone who has not undergone full body modification only needs to leave the safe bunker. Step into one, and you'll inhale thousands of Herren's radiation in the blink of an eye, and you'll be killed by the radiation that burns through all your organs and brains before you feel any pain.

And even if it has been transformed, don’t think it’s safe. In the wasteland of this planet, there are a large number of killer machines. , unleashed in a civil war with the Dark Mechanicus, who betrayed the Emperor, who have roamed the wasteland for thousands of years, killing anything that came before their eyes, whether you were made of meat, or Made of iron.

Among them are some killer machines that even date back to the ancient dark days, long forgotten by modern humans and even Mechanicists, these evil killing machines were unleashed on the land of Mars, where The scarlet deserts and the ridges are wandering in search of prey. If you come across them, believe me, whether you have faith or not, you better start praying.

Cole looked at the surface of Mars. Most areas on the planet were completely uninhabitable, or even passed, except for one place.

Unlike most forging worlds, Mars does not have a foundry that covers the entire planet. His factories and urban areas are concentrated in one place, a gigantic hive city that is the largest in human history, rivaling the palace of Terra.

On the western plain of Mars, a steel city stands on a huge land covering half of the continent. It is a steel hive composed of countless mechanical factories, temples, temples and research bases. It is tall and straight. High walls cut off the city from the dangerous wasteland, creating the only safe zone on the planet, an area of ​​absolute safety.

Cole and Vito looked side by side at the gigantic city on the planet, perhaps by coincidence, perhaps on purpose, the magnificent city formed a huge metal skull symbol, and the steel skull covered the entire western continent of Mars The surface, from the cosmic orbit they were in, looked like a cosmic giant that was cut off and buried on Mars, only its amazing facial bones exposed the scarlet land.

Cole overlooked the skull city, and in its giant eye sockets, orbital elevators rose from the surface, and they rushed through the tower-like buildings, broke through the atmosphere, and directly connected to the outer star ring.

"Isn't that what it used to be?" Cole asked Vito, looking slightly at Vito, who shrugged slightly, "No, I mean, yes, Mars was the first human to land on it and carry out It was like this before the ecological transformation, but in the golden age, we transformed it into a habitable planet, second only to the beautiful world of Terra."

"But now it's... like this, it's hard to believe what Mars was like back then, can you still find something similar to the past here? Something that evokes your memory."

"Yes, aren't we looking at it?" Vito pointed to the huge halo outside. The place Vito pointed to was the dock of a shipyard. The bottom of the dock slowly opened to both sides, and a huge The starship was slowly falling from it, and its jet of end thrusters ignited sparks at the bottom of the dock.

"This place is the same as in the past. The most important thing is factories and iron blocks. After the Iron Man Rebellion, the industrial capacity here has been especially strengthened, although. It also indirectly caused it to become this barren."

As Vito said, he looked at the star ring outside and fell into the memory of the past. Cole watched Vito silent for a moment, but just when one of the two was about to speak to break the silence.

Suddenly a huge starship flew past them. The red and gold warship rose from bottom to top, and suddenly rose from the glass in front of Vito and Cole. Its huge volume roared from the two sides. It flew up in front of the person and drove to the orbit outside the star port under the push of the plasma thruster.

Cole's eyes followed the trajectory of the battleship. It had already flown out of the star port. The flickering plasma thrusters illuminated Cole's face, and his eyes were forced to turn to one side to avoid it. Flashes, but when Cole turned to look, he saw a large fleet moored in outer orbit.

From the star ring that surrounds the entire giant Mars, the Mechanicist fleets that sailed out gathered in outer space, and the warships that ejected propulsive flames from the end drove out from inside and outside the star ring, and those distant warships were from the two. From the angle of view, it looks like a meteor flying into the universe from the direction of the surface.

Cole looked at the fleet on the outer orbit, and Vito also stood with him with his arms in his arms, looking at the huge fleet of Mechanicians assembled in the starry sky, many of which were quite new, probably just from the shipyard. After it was built, it was launched, and it joined the battle sequence as soon as it was launched.

"The entire Mars is in a state of combat readiness. The Mars Mechanic has assembled all the ships back, and the warships that were originally planned to be handed over to the Imperial Navy after the Star Harbor was built have also been detained." Cole's eyes scanned the orbit. The warships above, they were passing through the dark background of the Milky Way, slowly advancing towards the outer orbit.

"I can tell." Vito said and rubbed his nose. He looked at the fleets that were rapidly gathering above his head. Several lightning fighters roared from in front of Vito and Cole. Vito looked at the fast The passing fighter planes, after they completed the formation on the outer layer of the star ring, flew towards a giant battleship above the quasi-head, and the painting of the battleship was undoubtedly the imperial navy.

"In order to defend Mars, the Mechanics really pulled a fleet of comparable size. Have you counted them? How many warships are there?" , passing quickly from each suspended battleship, Cole soon knew it.

"At least seventy battleships, of which there are about thirty main battleships and three battleships." Cole said and pointed to the giant ship above his head, Vito's eyes followed the direction that Captain Cole pointed. Go, and soon found the Operon-class battleship surrounded by countless battleships.

Vito looked at the battleship and whistled. He grinned and smiled with his arms in his arms, "Mars is really rich, I like to fight this kind of rich war."

"The premise is that they are willing to hand over their fleet to us, Marshal. If these warships can join the battle to defend Terra, it will be of great help to us." Captain Eisenstein said and leaned up from behind. He took off his helmet and tucked the golden battle helmet under his arm.

Vito turned his head to look at Eisenstein, who was approaching. Bell and Loken followed behind him. The Ultramarines and the Captain of Shadowmoon Wolf had no weapons. They followed Eisenstein to Vito and Cole.

Cole nodded politely to the three as always, and the three Space Marines also nodded to the captain in response, but Vito, who was beside Cole, was not so strict at all. He smiled and clenched one hand into a fist and put it on his chin .

He looked at the three warriors in front of him, only Eisenstein was wearing a chainsaw sword, "I said, Captain Eisenstein, do you also need to wear a weapon on your own territory?"

"My family? No, the Mechanic has always been an ally of the empire, not a "family". We can be friends or allies, but it's definitely not our family." Priest Mechanic, he led a group of servitors to the Infinity Frontier in the distance.

Vito and several others looked in that direction. The Infinite Frontier was moored in the dock. Its huge hull ran through the entire dock horizontally, but its suspended berth specially built for heavy warships still made the Infinite Frontier. No. stopped in.

On the top of the giant ship is a huge dome with countless mechanical arms, multi-functional platforms and telescopic hoses hanging on it. Countless sliding rails and movable rails are zigzagging on it. They make those complex docks automatically The robotic arm can slide and reach every position of the huge battleship.

Below the battleship is a layer of blue void shield air wall, which flickers with shimmering light to isolate the vacuum universe below from the area in the dock, so that people who are working in the dock will not be sucked into the cold. within the void.

Vito's eyes looked at the deck on the side of the Infinity Frontier, and the flying sparks splashed down from the air. In the dazzling light of welding sparks, a huge robotic arm moved across the top of the dock, and servo skulls accompanied it. The robotic arm flew quickly across the deck.

Under that arm, the Mechanic Priests of Mars are communicating the details with the Mechanic colleagues on the Infinite Frontier. With the completion of the efficient docking work between the two sides, a team of machine servants and automatic transport vehicles began to transfer the ammunition and Supplies are transported on the wide deck on one side.

The heavy mechanical roar echoed in Vito's ears. He looked up for the sound and looked in that direction. It was a huge mechanical arm connected to a thick fuel pipeline. Pipes tucked into the sides of the Infinity Frontier, along with that open deck section, fed fuel into its power core.

"At least they can help us refill the fuel, ammunition, etc., is it good?" Vito glanced at Eisenstein with a smile, and the Imperial Fist company commander snorted and put his hand on the hilt of the chainsaw. , "If it weren't for the great sage on our ship and his knowledge reserve, I'm afraid these machines and cyborgs with no glory and loyalty would have blown us into the void long ago."

Bell and Loken looked at each other, and they both looked at Vito subconsciously, but the latter still smiled and shrugged, "Maybe, but at least we're standing here now, and we haven't been bombed into Asia. in space."

Vito said and looked at Bell, "How is the replenishment of the warships? There are also refugee fleets. I guess the Mechanicist should be very generous, right? Didn't they cut corners for us?"

"Everything is going well, Vito, the fuel and ammunition have been basically replenished. Now First Officer Anna is arranging the follow-up storage and final inspection. If there is no accident, the sailing will be launched soon."

"And the refugee fleet is also replenishing the deck of the civilian transport ship. Political commissar Karl Engels is responsible for supervising the implementation. Their replenishment is much simpler than ours. They only need to replenish a little fuel for the final voyage and some food."

"Food?" Vito asked slightly surprised. He turned to look at Cole and smiled jokingly. "I really didn't expect these oil guys to have something to eat."

"I think it may be for the mortal transport ships in the past, or it may be for the shipyard workers on the star port. Not all workers here are machine servants. I took a brief look at it, at least it is generally normal. Humanity."

This is not surprising. After all, when building a ship, it is impossible to have a priest watching every link all the time, and that leads to a single thread of thinking. When the priest is lost, a group of mentally handicapped servants cannot be competent for complex construction work. Ordinary humans are needed.

Although ordinary human beings are not as strong and stamina as machine servants, their thinking is more sensitive, active and good at handling more complex construction work. Even if there is no priest, they know what to do. Therefore, in most shipyards, even Mechanistically taught, automated devices cannot completely replace humans.

Bell said and looked up at the Infinity Frontier, which was not far away. Its bow was on the side of the crowd, and it was so close that you could touch its outer deck when you walked up to it.

To be honest, this is the first time that Bell has directly observed the entire ship structure of the entire Infinite Frontier. In the past, there would be at least some mechanical docks to fix the battleship, but now it is completely exposed to everyone's eyes. It can be said that he is lying naked. On the berth in the dock.

Vito stood with the three Astartes and Captain Cole. He looked at a robotic arm that was slowly raised in front of him with his hands behind his back. The huge hydraulic mechanical pliers locked a shot lying flat on the large flatbed. The missile on top, with the warhead's locking anchor point and the mechanical arm shouting, the missile was slowly lifted up.

"Marshal, please forgive me, you planned to seize the Council of High Lords of Terra, right?" Eisenstein, who was standing beside Vito, asked suddenly without warning. He was the same as his Primarch Dorne. , Asking exciting and scary questions are all inexplicable and suddenly asked, and you are completely caught off guard.

Loken and Bell looked at Vito after looking at each other. Cole, who was standing behind him, also cast his field of vision. Vito was still looking at the loading site with his hands behind his back. After the mechanical crane had lifted the missile, Hovering over the missile launch bays between the grand buildings on the back of the Infinity Frontier.

With a sound of arrival, the ground crew of the Infinite Frontier standing on the back of the hull began to wave the red indicator stick in his hand. Thick missile silo head.

"Yes, that's what I planned, I guess you know the reason, right?" Vito didn't look at Eisenstein, he didn't pay attention to the company commander beside him at all, but still answered his question.

The company commander fell silent after listening, he nodded silently after thinking for a moment, "The Council of High Lords of Terra cannot unite against the Chaos invasion at all, those guys are either fighting or preparing for infighting, they are each stupid. Desire and greed make it impossible for them to cooperate sincerely in defense."

The Council of High Lords is like this, like all the bureaucratic governments of the Imperial Sector, even if they are dying and Chaos puts their guns on their foreheads, they still tirelessly play their stupid political games for that one star. The interests of the people are broken, or they just shirk their responsibilities and blame, and try their best to pass the responsibility of failure to others.

"You plan to bring them all into power, take over all the power of Terra, and concentrate all the power in your own hands, so as to cooperate in resisting the invasion of Chaos," Eisenstein said calmly, fortunately they are now in addition to them There is no one else, and it sounds like there is only one translation from a third-party perspective.

rebellion.

Vito looked at the missile that was gradually descending in front of him. Its thick shooter missile body sank into the silo opening little by little. The ground crew waving the indicator rod kept swinging the red light rod downwards. The body also kept falling from in front of him into the pitch-black bomb bay.

"Yes, to overthrow the Council of High Lords, is there anyone who opposes it?" Vito asked calmly. He said that this was the most sinful act of the emperor in the empire, as if he had asked the brothers to go downstairs. It's as simple as throwing two rotten eggs in Uncle John's window.

This behavior is indeed similar to throwing rotten eggs. The people who are thrown are also a group of old and dead old things, but these old things will open the window, and then set up a machine gun from the inside and shoot you a shuttle.

Eisenstein looked at Vito, who nodded after a moment of silence, "I'll join."

"You're so direct, company commander, don't think about this kind of rebellion before joining?" Vito said with a mocking smile, his eyes still looking at the hull of the Infinity Frontier in front of him, looking at those busy Mechanicists and Servants.

"My oath of allegiance is to the Emperor, not to the Council of High Lords. If they threaten the Emperor, I will kill them without hesitation, nor will they slander me as a traitor." Love Senstein said firmly, and he also raised his head to look at the Infinity Frontier in the distance.

Vito smiled and leaned his head slightly in Bell's direction, "What about you? Great scholar, do you want to join the small rebel group?"

"You know my answer, Vito, my oath is to Lord Guilliman, who is the Regent of the Empire, not the Council of High Lords."

Bell looked at the battleship in the distance with his head held high. His eyes looked at the material trucks that were continuously transported from the landing deck. The convoys that came and went transported boxes of materials and ammunition to the battleship. Bell looked in that direction. raised his head.

"And when Lord Guilliman arrives in Terra, he will also disband this group of trash. In that case, why don't we help Lord Guilliman clear the door ahead of time? Save him coming to Terra and have to face this group of bastards."

Vito listened with a smile, but he was not surprised at all. He turned to look at Loken, waiting for the answer that he and the other party already knew.

Loken nodded, he put his iron fist on his chest and nodded to Vito, his meaning could not be clearer, Vito smiled and turned to look at Cole.

He watched Cole playfully tilt his head to one side, "How is it? Captain, you swore an oath to the Imperial Navy, and we are going to bring the High Lord of the Navy and Terra. The Navy Headquarters is all over the place."

Cole looked at Vito and straightened the belt on his waist. He put the logo of the Imperial Skyhawk firmly in front of his waist, and there was no flaw or problem in his dress from the norms of naval regulations.

Cole's fingers were on his belt, he didn't look at Vito, but looked at the Infinity Frontier like everyone else, looked at his own ship, "I did swear to the Imperial Navy, but my oath is to defend to the death to the death. The truth of the Empire and the Emperor, if anyone threatens this, the Imperial Navy will ruthlessly eradicate it."

"And besides, aren't you the supreme leader of the imperial navy? Lord Marshal, my oath is to be responsible step by step, aren't you the top of the empire's armed forces?" Cole showed a smile , that sly smile, which may have rarely been seen on Cole's face before.

"So, I obeyed the order of the Supreme Marshal to eradicate the Council of High Lords of Terra, and according to the order of the Marshal, I removed the powers of the Supreme Lord of the Imperial Navy and the Naval Headquarters. How can we talk about betrayal and breach of oath?"

"Damn it, since you have learned to play word games, have you taken advantage of it?" Vito suddenly became interested, he turned his head to look at Cole and smiled with his arms in his arms, while the latter smiled lightly, his hands behind his back He raised his head slightly.

"You don't look at how many years I have been with a certain guy. I will always learn some skills by teaching by words and deeds."

After Cole finished speaking, everyone laughed in a low voice, even Eisenstein showed a silent smile, Vito lowered his head and smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "That's ok, it looks like a small rebel group Now that the formation is complete, give us a name for our group?"

"The National Salvation League? If I remember correctly, Vito, this is what I read from your book, a bourgeois-democratic revolution launched by the Tsarist Empire in the nineteenth century to overthrow the autocratic monarchy. of young revolutionary officers called themselves the National Salvation League.”

"You have a good memory, Bell, but I guess you also remember that the revolution failed in the end, didn't you? Are you sure about the name Geely?" Vito said with a wry smile, while Bell put a hand on his waist On the armor layer, the other hand took off the helmet under the armpit, held it in his hand, and placed the corner of the steel helmet against the armor at the waist.

"Then why don't we "rewrite" this history of failure? It will now give a new meaning, the meaning of victory." Bell's young face smiled confidently, his words were full of motivation, let People feel an inexplicable power injected into the heart.

After hearing this, Vito showed a smile. He glanced at Bell, and then looked at the side landing deck of the Infinite Frontier in front, "The National Salvation Alliance started in a hurry and lacked the support of powerful allies. If we want to To change this fate, then we will need the support of an ally who plays a pivotal role in the Empire."

Vito said and walked forward, and the people behind him naturally followed. Loken followed behind Vito, and his cyan power armor walked around Vito, echoing dull footsteps.

"What allies are we going to find?"

Vito glanced at Loken and showed a sly smile. He raised his head slightly and pointed to the sign on the side. Several people turned their heads to look over and saw the half-mechanized skull with the appearance of Mars on its base. The skull was embedded on the surface of Mars, just like the skulls on the surface of Mars that Cole and Vito had seen before.

"Mars Mechanic Order, and the leader of all Mechanic Orders, General Casting." Vito put down his fingers and walked towards the army of Mechanic priests ahead with a smile.

(End of this chapter)