Emperor's Bane

Chapter 241 Zhuang Sen's Warmaster Ticket Warehouse

After more than 2000 days and nights of being separated from his blood relatives, the master of the Dark Angels finally completed a long-overdue homework, writing a sloppy ending to his last failure.

At least in his eyes, it is true.

"This is the last enemy ship, my lord, their resistance has been broken."

"This galaxy, this star region, has been completely cleared so far. This is the last large Randan fleet that we can detect so far. Their remaining power is hidden in the halo stars that are not lit on the star map."

"The intensity of the battle was not high. Everything was proceeding according to the pre-war plan. Casualties were controlled within 40. There was no damage to the main battleship and important war engines. In terms of personnel, the No. [-] Fifth Company of the Eighth Knights, as the vanguard, lost part of its strength and may need a short-term rest and replacement."

Coswayne stood beside his own Primarch. He stood at the foot of the snow-white alabaster throne, expressing his respect to the silent lion above his head. The deep forest voice unique to Caliban sang from his mouth, presenting the information and summaries clearly and unmistakably in front of the Lion King.

The Lion King half-closed his eyes. He calmly calculated all the treasures that time had taken away from him since the bloody defeat of Turks, while watching the last few aftermath of this battle, or massacre.

The alien warships were bleeding, and from their twisted spines full of spikes and iron chains, there was a stench that did not belong to the civilized world. The Primarch could see those fragile engines shaking irregularly, and the bumpy and damaged vortex sucked the metal tentacles unique to those Randan warships into them, twisting them into pieces and debris, until the sad remains filled most of the battlefield.

The battleships of the Dark Angels straddled these losers, carefully and ruthlessly killing those who were dying. Most of them closed the public communication channels that were easily invaded by alien technology, and only had a single line of contact and communication with the [Indomitable Truth] where the Primarch was located.

This is necessary, and it is also a lesson learned with a lot of blood: Ran Dan's crazy technology cracked some weapons of the Human Empire at an unknown moment. Although this hole card was not used in the crucial Battle of Turks, it is now causing continuous damage to the Dark Angels.

The public communication channel is no longer a safe place for communication. Alien electronic viruses are ready to attack any careless warship through there at any time, and any imperial ship that appears in front of you is no longer a completely trusted friend: too many deaths have proved that the alien has just mastered the technology of disguising itself as a dark angel warship, and can even escape the double scanning of naked eyes and electronic equipment. The Sandalwood Abbey that happened to pass by was recorded in time.

Yes, this war is like this: everything is changing, everything is at a stalemate, and everything is advancing with the most difficulty in the endless blood flow. Although the earth-shattering in the Tarks galaxy has sentenced the ultimate death sentence in the fate of the Alien Empire, it is still not enough to make this overlord who had aspired to the galaxy a few years ago give up his life. , just a pure, crazy hope to let the human empire bleed as much as possible.

So, here comes the Dark Angel.

They come very quickly.

The Primarch of the First Legion forgot some of the advice of his blood relatives. He couldn't even tolerate his Legion staying on Caliban for even a year. The Dark Angels were quickly called by the order of the Primarch and the sacredness of the mission. Once again, the cloud gathered almost all their strength and rushed to the long-lost frontier of the Obscure Starfield.

It was also from that moment that all navigation to the north of the Caliban star field was temporarily prohibited. The silence and trust of the Lord of Humanity gave the First Legion a reason to run rampant. They issued the strictest and most extensive travel prohibition order, dragging the entire northern border of the galaxy into confusion and darkness for a short time, until the day when their mission, which was gradually forgotten by the world, was finally completed.

extinct area.

This is the new name here, and it is also the common name for all offices of the First Legion. They like this simple naming that is both intimidating and mysterious, so as to minimize the clerical troubles and unnecessary exposure from within the empire.

But this time, everything went smoothly.

Accompanied by the joint power of the Lord of Humanity and the Handprinter, the memory of Ran Dan is slowly disappearing from the minds of most of the imperial people, or simply sealed away roughly. Only a few lucky ones and relevant people can retain some dim memories, recalling that the Great Crusade encountered such terrible obstacles, and recalling a Legion of Astartes that never seemed to appear.

Among the more noble people, among the many sons of the Lord of Men, their choices are also different: Guilliman and Dorne, who are directly related to the Lost One, calmly accepted the necessity of sealing memory; while the executioner on Fenris got drunk after a conflict full of laughter and tears, and then firmly remembered what he saw; The strange situation of disappearing inexplicably.

And the attitude of the Lord of the Dark Angels was different from them: Zhuang Sen didn't care about the brother who disappeared. Although his mind still clearly recorded the swift posture of the No.11 Legion during the battle, it didn't touch him as much as the crying old voices in the wreckage of the alien warship in front of him.

With the existence of Ran Dan gradually withdrawing from the memory of the human empire within a few years, the legions that once gathered in the north of the galaxy gradually dispersed. They continued to chase their own glory in the Great Crusade, leaving the most arduous mysterious mission on the shoulders of the Calibans: the Dark Angels picked it up without a wave, and continued this war that was destined not to be recorded without any hesitation.

Six years had passed since the Battle of the Tarks, and the fleet of Jonson had tracked, killed, and exterminated for six years in the darkness of the North.

Only a few human worlds have passed their screening and have the luck to become the people of the empire, while the other worlds have already been soaked in Ran Dan's blood, most of them are burned in the ruthless fire, and those most valuable have to face the black death from the sky.

It is conceivable that such a [conquest] is not destined to go too smoothly. The desperate struggles of countless powerful countries and the frenzied counterattacks of Ran Dan's fleet have continued in this nightmarish six years. Xu's blood, but the continuous six years are enough to make such [small fights] converge into a terrible number.

One battle of annihilation with five hundred Astartes casualties is fine, but what about ten?Is it a hundred games?Is... more?

In the [Extinction Zone], there is no hopeless reality that is impossible to happen. While the flames of slaughtering all beings are mercilessly killing countless worlds, they are also burning the Dark Angel himself as a matter of course.

"There are only a few or a dozen torpedoes left on most battleships. More than [-]% of the Stormbird squadrons are seriously short of manpower, or the equipment is aging to the limit. At the same time, almost all companies have encountered the problem of operational delays at the command level, because the command teams of each company have been fragmented, and some company commanders don't even have a temporary consultant."

In a low voice, Coswayne spoke out the tip of the iceberg of the legion's countless difficulties. There were still a few electronic boards stacked in his hand, and the content written on them must not be friendly.

"The next large-scale supply fleet is expected to arrive in three Terra standard days, but currently less than [-]% of the cruise companies have responded to our call. Some companies are in areas with blurred communication ranges, while others may have already encountered trouble. The logistics chief wants to know whether to find them, and then send a squadron for additional supplies. After all, this behavior is very dangerous."

"One more point: Several company commanders jointly reported that they noticed that the latest Caliban recruits were wearing the latest Mark IV armor of the Empire, rather than the Mark II armor that is still widely installed within the Legion. They thought that this cutting-edge equipment should be concentrated on the veteran detachment responsible for frontline missions. However, the Caliban recruits reacted strongly to this. They will take off their armor as an insult."

"In addition, Caliban recently reported a new abnormal earthquake..."

All kinds of news flowed out of Coswayne's mouth, nothing more than all kinds of bad news: casualties, difficulties, internal disputes.

They seem to have existed from the beginning, but at this moment, they are extraordinarily conspicuous and huge, making the Primarch sitting on his throne even a little too silent.

The Lion King is sitting on his throne. He has a violet cloak inlaid with gold, and a set of holographic projectors surround the throne. They are all turned on, showing dozens of ongoing space battles. The battles take place in every corner of the extinct area, and most of them are sudden encounters and desperate crushes.

Hunt, prey, kill.

This is the normal state of the extinct area, and it is also the meaning of its existence: when the First Legion really leaves here, all the worlds will become the most quiet and docile reliable subjects of the Lord of Humanity, because there are no longer any life that dares to spread malice.

This is the meaning of Johnson's existence.

The meaning was so ferocious and so heavy that when Coswayne finished reporting the last message and glanced at his taciturn primarch, he felt a distant fatigue and vigilance on those broad shoulders.

He took a step back, bowed his head, and waited for the Lion King's command.

After a while, he heard an extremely weak sigh, as if a beast in the forest was reluctantly facing a collapsed civilization.

"What's your opinion, Akao?"

Just as the dark angel thought, the Lion King did not give an order immediately, but threw part of the power back to his heir again. One of the lion's giant paws was placed on his lap, listening to Coswayne's silent thinking and calm words.

The Lion King's confidant gave his answers one by one. His great talent, which is rare even among the warriors of the Astartes, allowed him to combine force and wisdom, and could help the Primarch solve the Legion's plight: in most cases, although his advice was not a panacea, it was enough to make the picky Knight King secretly nod.

In all fairness, as an Emperor's Angel born for war, Kos's performance is enough to make any Primarch favor him: but unfortunately, as the Chief of Internal Affairs of the First Legion, Coswayne's position has a [former director] who is so powerful and omnipotent that it is almost impossible to surpass or compare, a master of the First Legion in another sense.

What's even more unfortunate is that just six years ago, before the [former director] did not fly solo, his genetic father spent more than ten years of lavish life under the "indulgence" and "support" of the silver-haired lady. Zhuang Sen, who had just taken over the legion, hadn't had time to really get familiar with all the details of the legion's management.

At the very beginning, everything may have revealed a kind of Caliban-style rigor, but since that showdown, the Primarch has consciously or unconsciously activated the magic of blood relatives.

Logistics is a number that does not need to be paid attention to, and supply is never a problem that needs to be worried about. The vast number of friendly forces only need to be spotted on the battlefield, and when they are not fighting, maybe they are a group of photosynthetic people who do not need to eat.

Battleships fell like falling drops in a rainstorm. The consumption of the God's Machine was like a handful of sand that was picked up casually. Countless worlds with glorious history and significance were arbitrarily designated as war zones, just to increase the possibility of victory by an insignificant proportion. And those astronomical numbers of logistics supplies and weapons consumption only needed to write a simple order to the chief of the house, and they would appear in the warehouse of the battleship like magic.

When the dance of war gradually reached its destined climax, the King of Caliban, who originally set his sights on the whole legion, was also used to standing in front of the star map for a long time, giving full play to his talents and accomplishments, planning bloody and cruel apocalypse performances one after another on the stage of the galaxy, completely ignoring how many minefields he had accumulated due to his reckless actions: anyway, these minefields had never been blown up on him, just like no letter of accountability from a forge world or a war council would reach Zhuangzhuang Sen's desk is average. After all, the automatic receiving address has long been changed to be next to the fully automatic coffee machine of the house manager.

In the later stage, the Primarch will even be pleasantly surprised to find that when his thoughts are churning again, preparing for the next apocalypse-level war, he will see that enough supplies to support this battle have already been placed in the Legion warehouse, and there is even more than enough. After those logistics supplies that are several times beyond his expectations, it seems that there is a haggard face that has become more proficient with the passage of time, and has even learned to prevent problems before they happen.

Who could live up to a face like that?
Even the Primarch had to feel this way.

Therefore, although he knew that these were enough supplies to support several battles, Zhuang Sen decided to take them all away and use several times the storage to win a smoother battle, so that the unquenchable flames of war will be far away from the empire's territory as soon as possible.

As for the warehouse being emptied by him, and the chaos of the long supply line behind this scene, the mess of countless plans and plans, the changes and complaints of various foundry worlds and logistics worlds, and the cats and cats roaring from the internal affairs office, these are things that the Lord of Dark Angels doesn't care about at all.

He immediately asked Morgan to fight side by side with him in this battle, and in front of her, at the cost of several Titan legions, won an unimaginable victory: she didn't seem to be dissatisfied or complained, and the speed and efficiency of the internal affairs office were as amazing as ever. Over time, he even regarded this as a habit, a responsibility that the internal affairs office should have fulfilled.

Therefore, when the war situation turned bad again, he made a choice without hesitation: let his chief of internal affairs add a small squad, so that he could devote all his energy to the military.

This comprehensive novice gift package lasted for more than ten years, occupying most of Jonson's time as a Primarch, so that when Coswayne managed to sort out the internal affairs of the Legion with the help of Morgan's shadow and the countless auxiliary documents left by the Spider Queen, and then put them on Jonson's desk, the Lord of the First Legion actually felt a kind of bewilderment that he had never seen before.

Johnson's cognition was confused.

Shouldn't things like the internal affairs of the legion be something that the Chief of Internal Affairs can single-handedly eliminate?
As for the scope of the army's internal affairs...

Aside from fighting, isn't everything else part of the legion's internal affairs?
……

Although the Primarch didn't say it clearly, Coswayne easily read the information on his face that could be called "shocked".

The Lion King's confidant didn't even have the heart to tell his lord: he thought it was his job to get all the housework in order, and the Primarch would take care of it all by himself.

Thus, amidst this two-way silence and trust, the duties that originally belonged to one woman were placed on the shoulders of the two men, and at the very first moment they almost destroyed their wills that had not been tempered by the documents: When the King of Caliban relied on his talent and tenacity as a Primarch to barely adapt to breathing in the vast sea of ​​documents, he suddenly thought of a problem.

Morgan is gone.

But he might be able to create another Morgan.

The best target is without a doubt...

The old Caliban face named Luther flashed across the mind of the Primarch, and it wasn't until this moment that Jonson realized that he had sent Luther to the Far East as an envoy, and the object of the envoy... seemed to be his first chief of staff.

I don't know what's going on with Luthor's mission and situation. I hope he can get used to the emptiness of the Far East frontier a little bit.

The Primarch frowned, then turned his gaze to Coswayne.

Fortunately, Coswayne never disappoints, and with the end of the Battle of Turks, there are actually not so many huge documents belonging to the Ministry of the Interior.

While gnawing through the countless files left by his own blood relatives, the Primarch commanded his legion, continued the terrible killing in the extinct area, and searched for the possible location of Randan's mother planet and his crazy brother.

This is not an easy task, especially the Randan Empire, which is more urgent. Their parent star seems to be hidden in a remote corner of the northwest of the galaxy. Even in the golden age of human beings, there are very few detections there.

The Dark Angel had no choice but to choose a relatively safe method: clear any star area where Ran Dan soldiers appeared, and one day they will be able to rule out their parent star.

In this way, the western part of the Obscure Star Field was divided into countless small grids. The fleet of the Dark Angels and the alien army that grew wildly like weeds were playing a boring grid game. Every time a grid was completely filled with hundreds of millions of blood, it meant that the destruction of the Randan Empire had taken another firm step.

For six years, this grid game has been running steadily and ruthlessly, constantly devouring the lives of both sides. Tens of thousands of Dark Angels have never had the chance to take off their armor, and hundreds of warships of the First Legion can no longer reply to the inquiries of the [Indomitable Truth].

But on this day, even the solitude was taken away.

"No. 20 Legion?"

After finishing the report, Coswayne exited Jonson's throne room, but quickly went back and delivered a visiting message.

Zhuang Sen looked at the message and frowned.

The message was very short, so short that it could be described in one sentence: an envoy of the No.20 Legion who claimed to be Alpharius, was eager to have an audience with the Primarch of the Dark Angels.

Jonson had heard of the No. 20 Legion: a question mark, a phantom, a master of ghosts whose only fragments were told, a group of fascinated souls who didn't even have a Primarch of their own, a Legion that might or might not exist.

He didn't think he had anything to talk about with this group of people, but...

"Bring him to me, Akao."

"Yes, my lord."

------

The person who came called himself Alpharius: he was wearing a set of Mark IV armor, which was like the battleship he was riding on, without any decorations that could show his identity, which made the King of Caliban's already high vigilance almost reach a critical point.

The Primarch left behind his confidant, and motioned for Coswayne to put his hand on the hilt of his sword without any concealment, showing a kind of unspoken attitude.

To this, the visitor responded with a disgustingly polite smile, and was quick to say that he had not come empty-handed, but with a generous gift.

An elite company, and the strength of an entire regiment to follow: a generous gift indeed, one that even Jonson himself could not refute, but it wasn't enough to make him smile at it, since an additional condition was tied to the gift.

"Then, let me understand your words a little bit, ghost: you want me to accept the legion behind you, commanding the strength and fleet of the two legions, so as to end the long war with the Randan Empire as soon as possible."

"exactly."

The smile under the bald head could even be called sincere, but it didn't make Zhuang Sen's frown relax.

"Each legion has its own tasks, its own areas and goals. This is one of the reasons why my brothers don't visit these backwaters. So, apart from my father's order, what else can you join in my war zone?"

"This is an invisible right of the No.20 Legion, Lord of the Lions, we are eager to see Ran Dan's destruction and the victory of the Great Crusade, and we can also use our own choices to promote the arrival of all this."

"Your rights?"

"You can think of it as a license, or a tacit consent, or a small difference that every Legion has, which separates us from the same noble purpose."

The visitor who called himself Alpharius continued to smile, his pupils flickering with confidence.

What answered him was the silence of the lion king, and after a long time, a sneer.

"You know, Alpharius, your words remind me of someone."

"An old friend?"

"Yes, an old person, she always impresses me, I can't forget her, and her words always do, flaunting a kind of arrogance that dances wantonly on the edge of the red line."

That [she] made the visitor's brows twitch, and before Alpharius could say anything, the Lord of the First Legion took out his own sword, laid it across his knees, and stroked it intentionally or unconsciously.

"I have tried to kill her, with roaring steel and my sword, and the cause of her death will be unbridled arrogance and uncontrollable danger: an unforgivable sin."

"But at the moment of execution, she uttered her defense, she provided a perfect confession, she made the execution that she was determined to have to stop, because her acquittal was so impeccable, that is the only reason in the galaxy that allows people like you to survive."

"But unfortunately, I have never seen such a reason in your case."

"So, from now on, you'd better start telling the truth, boy, for your own sake."

The long silence and seriousness accompanied the declaration of the Calibans, and they refused to disperse in the throne room for a long time. When the Lord of the First Legion raised his head slightly, proud of his victory in disguise, he saw the visitor take a few steps back, and then spoke seriously.

He met the primarch's gaze.

"You shall be a Warmaster, my lord,"

The sonorous words echoed in the space, but this time, it was the lion who was silent.

"..."

"..."

"Warmaster?"

Johnson opened his mouth cautiously.

"Is this the vocabulary you learned in the Second Legion?"

This abrupt question caused Alpharius to pause for a moment, he first recalled it carefully, then shook his head.

"You may not understand enough. In the past six years, with the progress of the Great Crusade, more and more people have realized that: as the monarch of the empire, the Emperor will never appear on the frontline battlefield as a commander. Then, when the Lord of Humanity returns to the holy Terra, a position that stands out from the originally equal Primarch and coordinates the Great Crusade is imminent."

The envoy of the No.20 Legion uttered this blockbuster seriously. He predicted the lethality of this word for the Lord of the First Legion, but what surprised him was: when he seriously explained the origin of the Warmaster, the first expression that appeared on Jonson's face...

It seems to be relieved.

But fortunately, this weird slack turned into the seriousness that Alpharius expected, which allowed him to continue talking freely.

"Maybe it's the emperor's personal choice, maybe it's the vote of the Primarchs, or maybe it's the hero that everyone silently recognizes in the future conquest: no matter what the result of the selection is, there is no doubt about it."

"If you want to become a Warmaster, then you can't continue to destroy your legion in this battle. If you continue to suffer such huge casualties, you won't be able to surpass some other legions again. They are developing their own power behind your sacrifices. With their glorious record and rapidly expanding strength, they can claim that they are worthy of the title of Warmaster."

"Among your brothers, there are quite a few who are determined to win this title."

"Like the Lord of the No.13 Legion, he is just a pale reflection of you, but who can deny the size of the five hundred worlds today? Who can deny that when the king of Ultramar can have 20 or more Astartes fighters, it would not be a safe choice to give him the title of Warmaster."

"There is also the Tenth Legion, which came from the Iron Hand of Medusa. Who can surpass the torrent of Ferus in the past few years? His indifferent and ruthless fighting style has long been praised as art by those ignorant and ignorant people, because they can't see your war in the dark, and Gorgon, who also can't see all this, will voluntarily withdraw from the pursuit of the Warmaster?"

"And, oh, the incomparably powerful Shadow Moon Wolf, the first son of the Emperor in the Cthunians' mouths, has the honor of being the first to step into this great expedition on the stage, and regards himself as the chief of the Legion and the Primarch. When the word Warmaster comes up, he will take it for granted as a crown that has been worn on his head for a long time. Who can persuade him to hand over this imaginary private property?"

"My lord, they are all waiting, all fighting, all trying to take to their arms that crown that is yours, and you are doing the opposite: you are letting it slip away."

"Staying in the dark will do you no good, my lord. Isn't the bloody blood of the Turks enough to support your reputation? Although most people have forgotten it, those truly wise people will firmly remember your dedication in the Second Randan War, and they will not doubt you."

"Please don't hesitate any longer. You just need to withdraw your power now, and let us complete the rest of the task. At this time, you will restore the number of legions, let the Dark Angels return to their former glory, and throw the most powerful First Legion into the Great Crusade. You will shock everyone within ten years. All the legions combined cannot match your glory."

"After all, there is one thing that even we cannot deny: that if you continue in this darkness, wasting your strength and your time, without honor and victory evident enough, then the Warmaster's laurels are doomed to leave you, and no Primarch will stand behind a brother whose details and victories they do not know, and no one will."

"Who will support you unreservedly? Those Lords of the Word Bearers who are obsessed with prayer? Or the barbarian king of Fenris? Or those wind chasers who see the dragon and see the dragon? They don't know you at all, they have never heard of your name."

"Even if it's the Primarch who once fought alongside you, the female tyrant of Avalon who once witnessed the true power under the banner of the First Legion? Could she do it? I heard that she is expanding wantonly on the frontier of the Far East and planting her own banner in three star regions. Who can say that her heart is not burning with the desire of the Warmaster?"

"Who can say: She will definitely choose to support you? Will she definitely choose to respond to you?"

"Has she ever made a promise? Has she ever made an oath? Has she ever shed blood with you?"

Alpharius spoke.

"..."

Johnson, on the other hand, was silent.

But this is not a persuasion, or in other words, this is destined to be a tirade that will fail.

Coswayne thought so.

Because he saw the scene that the visitors of the No.20 Legion didn't see when they were compiling the words.

When the Primarch of the Dark Angels sat in his seat and listened to Alpharius' words, when he heard questions about the Spider Queen, and topics such as [Promise], [Oath], and [Blood], when he heard whether Morgan would support him in the election of the Warmaster.

A fleeting gleam flashed across Jonson's pupils, the echo of an unquestionable conclusion in the Primarch's mind.

That was a touch of sarcasm.

and endless self-confidence.

(End of this chapter)