Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 333 Between Children and Heirs
"It's... natural, longing... and expectation."

On the eve of the Primarch's arrival, in the depths of the main body of the huge fortress complex on Titan II.

The two sons of Calvin are enjoying the precious private time after a whole day of training in the maintenance hall underground of the fortress.

One of the young men was wearing a sackcloth, holding his shoulder armor and looking at it repeatedly under the lamp. After confirming with satisfaction that there were no scratches, he carefully applied a layer of holy oil to it, and then wiped it gently .

Another young man has a slightly different attitude towards equipment, he has already handed over his armor to the machine servant to take care of it.

He himself is using a dagger on the granite slabs mined from the surface, and using runes like knives and axes (just like a miserable author sitting in front of a computer) to sway his not-so-rich literary talent.

"Huh!" Blowing off the debris on the slate, Russell looked at his work with satisfaction, but then he hesitated about his choice of vocabulary.

"Hey! Brother. Show me."

He looked at Little Calvin who was still processing the armor behind him and said.

He and the guy next to him are the first batch of recruits on the home planet Titan, but because of the different sources of recruitment, Calvin, who was born in Terra, and Russell, who came down from the black ship of the Limit Star Field, have completely different fates and the personalities shaped by those circumstances.

Needless to say the fate of little Calvin:
Brave, loyal, well-educated, well-informed, and big-picture.

He was born in the nobles of Terra, and participated in the training of Astartes soldiers since he was a child. If it weren't for the arrogance of his father and brother in the family, some suffixes such as enthusiasm, hearty, and sense of responsibility should have been added to his evaluation.

But his elder brother ruined it all himself.

The ancestors fought for the empire for thousands of years, and the countless bloodshed and sacrifices were no longer recognized by the empire.

The surviving members of the family were all exiled to the distant war front because of their crimes.

The glory of Sutherland has faded in this world, and only one orphan is fighting for it.

The future is uncertain, and there is no way back.The sudden bad news made the young Sutherland grow up overnight.

The changes in the surrounding environment made him restrain his innocence and enthusiasm, and he only had stricter requirements on himself in training.

The powerful talent coupled with this hidden inferiority complex shaped his strong will and matching abilities.Among the recruits from Terra, he was the obvious leader.

Russell is just the opposite:

Born in the Faithful Academy, his parents died since he was a child, and his only elder brother died in the borderlands of Ultramar before he reached adulthood.

But because of the attention of his college, he had an unexpectedly warm childhood.

It was an extremely remote star area, and the Faithful Academy to which it belonged was not valued by the empire.

The instructor is his brother's comrade-in-arms, treating him like a relative;
The classmate came from the same background as him, and there was no competitive interest in the background of not being valued by the star governor, and there was also a warmth that was unimaginable to the outside world.

In this environment, Russell's personality growth is far healthier than that of Calvin Jr., and his mature and generous style of dealing with things has made him highly praised by students from other than Terra.

The two have very different styles, and both have a strong influence among the recruits, and in several confrontations representing their respective camps, they also admire each other's personalities very much.

They are natural partners, because they are so smart that they both know that forming cliques is the most stupid behavior, and they have an obligation to bridge the relationship between the two groups.

They are also the closest competitors to each other, because only then can they prove that their path is the right one.

"Yes..." Little Calvin turned his head, and after careful scrutiny, he gave his evaluation sparingly.

"Oh? Then I'll take a look..."

Russell raised the dagger and devoted himself to carving the stone slab again.

He has enough confidence in Little Calvin's aesthetics, but the other party's wording is not so direct, and he often needs to "translate" it again.

Usually, the "can" in the former's mouth means "to be optimized"...

This set of slates is Russell's carefully prepared personal biography. He hopes that after his death in battle, these things can faithfully record his life and accompany him through the long years in the underground city of the dead.
-
A day later, Calvin's fleet jumped from Manzeville Point.After sending out the psychic key of a specific wavelength, the Angel of Retribution led the fleet through the heavy fog of war outside the Titan II, and appeared in the berth above the star port on time.

Thousands of gray knights were like sculptures made of steel, holding battle halberds and marching in line until they reached the bottom of the star port and then stagnated.

The icy cold wind blew across the pale and barren plain, howling and trying to take away everything that passed by, but the Gray Knights stood motionless on both sides of the avenue, only the cloaks behind them fluttered in the strong wind.

"How much longer?" The representative of the Demon Tribunal, the high-ranking judge, Ms. Phaethon, opened the magnetic boots under her feet and asked in a low voice to the elders beside her against the howling cold wind.

At this time, she was wearing a heavy feedback power armor, standing behind Urdas in the front of the queue.

The former's stature was nearly two meters under the blessing of the armor, which was big enough for him as a mortal.

However, against the backdrop of all the 2.5-meter Gray Knights in the array behind him, Phaeton's talented figure, who was born in the knight family, was also reflected in a somewhat "petite" sense.

As for the third Order in front of him—Urdas, the Grand Master of the Order of the Guardians, the 2.7-meter-high body is like a walking iron tower, just standing there, has an awe-inspiring and inviolable aura momentum.

"Soon." Urdas didn't wear a helmet, and his big chin covered with silver stubble showed his strong character in daily life.The only remaining gray-blue eye is sharp and gloomy, which is reflected by the scarred facial muscles.

As soon as his words fell, there was a faint tremor in the air from the end of the sky.

When this tremor quickly grows from nothing, from small to large, it becomes an overwhelming roar.Following Urdas' line of sight, Judge Phaethon finally saw the Thunderhawk fleet that was rapidly expanding in his line of sight and descending from the sky.

"what is that?"

"... Gestalt?"

"By the throne! How is this possible?"

"No, it's Gestalt! But how could it be so pure?"

Feeling the psychic suppression from the end of the sky like a dark cloud, the Sons of Calvin present were discussing with each other on the psychic channel.

They are no strangers to this collection of group wills, and have even experienced similar drills through the information sent back from the front.

But drills are drills. Without the mediation of the Primarch himself, it is impossible for them to touch the core power of the legion's will, and it is impossible for them to touch such a unified state of spiritual harmony.

And when this masterpiece belonging to the Primarch himself appeared in front of them like this.

The extremely pure spirit in the collection of wills, and the terrifying psychic suppression that followed, made them truly understand the incomparable difference between the two.

"Did you feel it?" Little Calvin asked his partner beside him in a daze.

"Yes, I feel it." Russell murmured.

The two sons of Calvin recover from the shock and affirm each other's feelings in excitement.

Because they are also Gray Knights, they are the only ones who can clearly perceive the other party's unified pace at this time;

Also because they are also gray knights, they know how difficult it is to achieve such a unified harmony among different soul fluctuations, which is almost an impossible miracle.

As the sons of Calvin, only they are qualified to practice this kind of tactics, so they know the terrifying changes brought about by this change;

They are also the sons of Calvin. In front of the familiar and strange 281 integrated spirits, what they see is not a single soul.

That is a colossus made up of 281 souls!That is the existence called Legion Will, which evolved like a god in the real universe!
In front of this god who seemed to come into the world, although they have an absolute numerical advantage, they are still like tiny ants.

The existence of the other party is so clear because of the same blood, he doesn't even need to do anything, just existence is enough to make their hair stand on end.

(Two gray knights died in the battle of the space hulk, so there are only 281 gray knights of Krieger who can accompany Calvin to Titan II in the end.)
A huge sense of humiliation rose from Calvin's chest. Even though he knew that this was not the intention of those brothers, he still didn't want to expose his ugliness in front of them!

"Maintain discipline! We can feel them. Then they must be able to "see" us too!"

Calvin Sutherland ordered in a low voice, and Russell behind him instantly understood his thoughts.

"Yes!"

He also didn't want to show weakness to brothers he had never met, let alone their genetic father.

Two particularly tall gray knights stood at the forefront of the formation, and the fluctuations of spiritual energy between the left and right positions were no longer obscure.

"Concentrate your will!"

In the psychic communication, the two were like trumpeters standing under the storm, and they were the first to sound the horn of struggle among all the brothers.

"I am the Holy Hammer!" Many arbitrators then shouted.

The call of the two was quickly answered by other arbitrators, and a temporary psionic network took these officers as nodes and quickly took shape in just a few breaths.

call!drink!
For thousands of gray knights, they successfully linked their spirits with each other, which was something that had never been done in previous training;

The compatriots in the sky brought them tremendous pressure. Under this terrifying oppression, the Sons of Calvin broke through the shackles of the past and reached an unprecedented spiritual level.

call!drink!
Thousands of people breathe at a uniform frequency, even if the voice of an individual is small, its neat chest resonance has attracted the attention of the judge in front of him.

"Quiet, the silver blade is about to arrive."

The Great Instructor spoke with a calm face, drawing the attention of the judge, Ms. Phaethon.

The latter was no longer distracted after being reminded by Urdas, and naturally he did not see the smile hidden in the corner of the teacher's eyes.

The sparks between the two troops have been ignited without ever meeting each other. This kind of fighting spirit is something that veterans appreciate very much.He would never allow the judge's curiosity to disturb the competition that only belonged to the gray knights.

The sons of Calvin on the ground looked serious. They were excited by the new realm and had a deeper understanding of the power of order;

It also made them feel more in awe of the will of the legion above their heads when they experienced this power.

When Thunderhawk descended on top of their heads with that huge will, a loose but vigorous psionic collection had already taken shape.

　Update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)