Emperor's Bane

Chapter 591 Five Thousand Year Old Comrade

[Many years ago, someone gave me such an example.]

[He told me: If the Empire conquered a thousand worlds in the Great Crusade, there would be two hundred ruins, pirate dens, alien worlds, and places where fallen humans and aliens lived together. These places need to be thoroughly purified.]

[Of the remaining eight hundred worlds controlled by human immigrants, more than six hundred will cheer for the flag of Terra and rush to become the subjects of the Emperor, and among the other two hundred diehards, one hundred and fifty will wisely lower their independent flags and surrender to the overwhelming army of the Emperor on the day the Imperial fleet arrives.]

[That is to say, among the one thousand worlds that need to be conquered, only the compatriots on fifty worlds will fight against us; and among these fifty worlds, no more than five will fight the Empire to the end. The others will realize their mistakes in time after shedding enough blood, and then become the most loyal subjects under the Empire, because they know the price of resisting the Empire's rule.]

[Of course, we all know that this is just an example. Neither one thousand nor five are very standard numbers, but I think my point is clear: the Great Crusade may have endless blood and fire, but it is by no means just blood and fire. Its theme has always been the recovery of human homeland and unity, rather than the fratricide among compatriots.]

[So, there aren't many opportunities for us to shed blood and fire.]

"And right now, there is one?"

[Yes, my brother.]

The Spider Queen leaned back in her chair, one hand resting on her cheek, and with the other hand casually adjusting the star map in front of her in mid-air: the Milky Way and the stars circulated back and forth in front of the Primarchs, passing through countless galaxies, telling of yet another conquest of the galactic frontier of the Human Empire.

Morgan's three brothers gathered around the table, some sitting and some standing, but it was Jonson who paid full attention: Conrad slumped in his chair and yawned openly, and Corax looked troubled, but none of them missed what Morgan said next.

[I told you before that the conquest of the Inesim space was a semi-finished product that Horus passed on to me because he was eager to command the Battle of Ullanor. You must all be familiar with the Wolf God's style of doing things: before he had to go to the Draco region, he had stayed in this space for eight months, and his persuasion and diplomatic activities never stopped.]

The Primarch knocked on the table, and the star map was projected to a more specific place: the seven civilized worlds of the Inesim space were unfolded in front of the four Primarchs one after another, and the drop of blood in the upper left corner showed that they were all pure human worlds.

[Of the seven human colonies, six have been persuaded, or are just one step away from being persuaded: they have not forgotten their homeland and bloodline from Terra, and are happy to become part of the human empire, and the captains of Horus have also completed the handover with the vanguard troops I sent over.]

【But the problem lies precisely in the seventh world. 】

After saying that, Morgan pointed to the dimmest of all the lights. If she hadn't pointed it out specifically, almost no one would have thought that there was civilization on that planet: it was so small that it seemed only possible to build an outpost, and the barren surface could be clearly seen from space.

[This world is called Vilic, and it has no connection with the other worlds. My agents once wanted to invite other natives of this universe to help with diplomatic activities, but what they got was a general panic: the locals claimed that there were monsters in this world, and more than one human army and even an alien army disappeared after setting foot on this outpost. ]

"Monster? Interesting."

After entering the strategy room, a smile appeared on Zhuang Sen's face for the first time.

That's the expectation.

"It seems that our Wolf Shepherd God has left you with a difficult problem?"

【I believe this was not his intention.】

Morgan nodded and took the glass of wine from Virgo's tray.

[In fact, this was just a pure coincidence: the reconnaissance force sent by Horus lost a certain amount of time and manpower in this world. When he received the intelligence, my fleet had already sailed into the warp. It was Conrad who arrived later and told me the intelligence sent by Horus.]

"Conrad?"

The Lion King looked at his brother.

"Didn't you foresee all this before, Bat?"

"My ability to predict is fading."

Midnight Haunter slumped in his chair, not seeming to like the topic very much.

“And the error rate is skyrocketing: There are a lot of times where it’s just misleading me.”

"Have you ever thought about the reason?"

"Who knows."

Conrad chuckled.

"I don't care anymore anyway."

Zhuang Sen was silent. He absorbed this new information and then nodded to Morgan.

[Okay, next...]

Morgan's two fingers rubbed in a magnifying motion, and Velich's figure occupied half of the ceiling. All the intelligence detected by the Luna Wolves with their lives were arranged in front of the Primarchs: including terrain, weather, number of enemies and corresponding pictures.

"and many more?"

Corax, who had been daydreaming, suddenly frowned.

"According to the intelligence, there are actually only 400 enemies in this world?"

"The Luna Wolves didn't take it down?"

【The situation is a little more complicated.】

Morgan smiled and she quickly lit up the hidden picture.

[First of all, the so-called enemies in this world look like this. ]

The lights came on, and even Conrad made a disgusted expression.

"Chaos Egg?"

"What? Conrad?"

"No, it's nothing, Corax."

In the picture, one can clearly see a mass of twisted flesh and blood: human limbs formed into pale starfish-like objects, with a beaked mouth in the center; a long, thorny tongue as thick as a tree stump dragging a translucent intestine, and the skin was covered with crying eyeballs; a bulging mountain of flesh with barbs on the outside, hundreds of hands holding up a mouth covered with black hair and eyeballs that flowed like liquid...

Compared with these things, even the so-called flesh and blood mutations seem incomparably mild: in front of them, perhaps only the Lord of Caliban can remain calm.

"You seemed to have told us before that there is only a human world here, Morgan?"

[I said this: This is the second problem.]

The Primarch smiled maliciously.

[Although these things are so disgusting, they are completely human: or in other words, every blood and flesh cell in their bodies is composed of human genetic tissue, and does not include any other genetic templates, let alone any subspace technology. ]

[A complete human creation: theoretically any laboratory can make it. ]

"what do you mean……"

[Yes, there are indeed only four hundred people in this world, but each person has been divided into dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of parts, and then tens of thousands of such monsters were created: the Shadow Moon Wolves call them lost things. ]

[Because these monsters are completely human from a genetic point of view, the detection equipment cannot distinguish this and thinks there are only 400 people in the world. ]

"Tsk."

This time, even Zhuang Sen couldn't help but frown deeply.

【Oh, there is one more thing. 】

Morgan took a deep breath.

[Although this thing looks so disgusting, combat records show that each of these tens of thousands of monsters has the strength to at least die together with the Astartes: their nightmarish flesh and biological prostheses have extraordinary destructive power, and the largest individuals are completely comparable to the Empire's warships. ]

"But they are just a group of wild animals after all."

The Lion King pounded the table hard: he recalled the bad memories.

"We've killed similar ones! We've killed thousands of them!"

"An extermination order or a low-altitude special operation will suffice: this world is of no value to the Empire anyway, so let these remnants of the Dark Ages be buried with their long-dead masters!"

【You are wrong. 】

Morgan looked at her brother.

[I have obtained accurate intelligence that the master of this world is still alive: in the bunker at the core of the planet, there lives one or thirty real humans, and their genes are highly similar to those of Holy Terra.]

The impact of all the previous content is not as far-reaching as this sentence.

"You...you mean..."

Corax took a deep breath.

"A... Terran..."

[This is why I plan to launch a landing operation instead of directly launching an extermination order on this world.]

The Primarch stretched out his finger and wrote a name in the air.

"Basilio-F?"

Conrad whispered the words and felt a dull pain on his forehead: he must have heard of this name, but he couldn't remember what the corresponding character did: the prophecy of the Midnight Haunter was so unreliable.

"F?!"

On the other side, Zhuang Sen, who obviously knew more, was getting a little restless.

"Morgan, are you saying that he is the Fu in the Unification War?"

【Yes. 】

[The one who had fought the Lord of Mankind for a long time in the Terra Unification War with countless monsters: after his defeat, he stole a spaceship and escaped from the solar system before the Emperor unified the entire Terra.]

"But... but he is a figure from five thousand years ago. He existed before the beginning of the Age of Strife and lived through the entire Age of Strife. No transformation surgery can allow a mortal to live that long. Unless he is an immortal!"

[He is not immortal, he has achieved all this with his own technology, not relying on the subspace and alien technology, but only using human technology to transform himself, and has lived for five thousand years: even his body structure has not changed much, unlike those oil guys. ]

"..."

The Lion King was silent.

"No wonder Terra's copywriting records always emphasize that he is a genius..."

[Of course: Although these things look like demons, they are actually pure human creations. That guy did not use any subspace technology, nor did he use any alien technology. He used pure human technology and real universe products to create these nightmares out of thin air. ] [A creation that can perish together with 10,000 Astartes warriors. ]

[Only 400 people are needed. ]

"...What do you mean?"

The Crow King frowned, as he keenly smelled something bad.

[Unfortunately, everyone.]

Morgan smiled at her brothers, mainly Corax.

[After learning his identity, I had a remote call with the Emperor, just before we met Jonson: The Lord of Mankind's will was very clear, he asked us to capture this guy alive at all costs, a Custodian force has arrived to receive him, and he will be imprisoned in the underground cell of the Terra Palace. ]

This declaration from the Emperor caused a dead silence in the strategy room: Zhuangsen and Conrad were stunned for just a moment before accepting the request. Although this made them somewhat unhappy, they didn't care about it. Perhaps Vulkan would object?

or……

"What a joke!"

Corax slammed the table and stood up, his anger making even Jonson look at him sideways.

The Crow King pointed at the picture of the monster, his pale lips trembling.

"Morgan! He is a lunatic who deserves to be hacked into pieces! Look at what he has made with the flesh and blood of his compatriots! Even an alien nation wouldn't be so absurd! Those who have been tortured are all living human beings!"

【But there are only four hundred people. 】

"Very few!"

[A lot?]

"Can……"

[In the Emperor's opinion: not much.]

【It is far less than his potential value. 】

A simple smile strangled Corax's anger in his throat.

"So, we are going to watch this lunatic return to Terra alive?"

"Why!"

【Because of four things. 】

Morgan raised his finger.

[First of all, he did not use any power of the subspace from beginning to end. ]

[Secondly, he extremely hated and even rejected alien technology, so naturally he did not use it.]

[Next, he is a genius bioengineer and certainly does not worship gods.]

"Is that all?"

Corax glanced at his three blood brothers: it was absurd and almost ridiculous.

Morgan just sighed.

[Believe me, Corax: If you do not violate these three rules, then you can do whatever you want within the territory of the human empire. This is the red line of our father.]

[This Fu is the same: he is also a humanist...]

"But he's a lunatic!"

【He is indeed a madman.】

Morgan's brows were cold.

【But at least, he is a human supremacist lunatic. 】

------

"With all due respect: I don't see the difference between the two points."

Lieutenant Colonel Jeanna stuck out her tongue and licked the dry crack at the corner of her mouth. The sudden pain made her sure that she was still alive: after a bloody battle that lasted for six hours and cost more than two thousand lives, this kind of pain was exactly what the Huntsman Rose needed at this moment.

Jeanne strode into her own command room, or rather their command room: next to the map stood a captain of the Dawnbreakers and a primarch attendant from the Night Lords Legion, and they were jointly responsible for this front.

Before this, it was true.

"But after this, we have to hand over the conquered land to the Dark Angels?"

Jeanne took off her helmet. The air purifier above her head was processing the toxic fog in this world at maximum power. The recovery pump was spraying disinfectant on them all the time: once they walked out of this strategic room, anyone had to be fully armed, otherwise, because the miasma that covered the entire sky could poison a Death Guard in less than two minutes.

It is conceivable that fighting in such an environment is very difficult.

But the Hunting God Roses did it, and their allies were not far behind.

"I understand your feelings, Commander Jeanne: I feel the same way."

In charge of fighting alongside the Huntsman Rose Legion is Davout's Twelfth Company. As the most outstanding Avalonian in Dawn's hands, Davout is accustomed to being released by his Primarch and taking charge of a single front in the war: this has proven to be the art he excels at best.

"But you have to know."

Dawnbreaker pointed at the virtual sand table, on which the flags of various troops were marked: the black flags of the Dark Angels accounted for an overwhelming number, more than 60%, the rest were the Dawnbreakers and their auxiliary forces, and the dark blue flags of the Midnight Lords were negligible.

"Before setting off, the Dawnbreaker Legion just conducted a large-scale conscription campaign in the Far Eastern border area, which increased our legion's strength to just over 70,000. However, due to some errors in intelligence, Lord Morgan only brought 20,000 troops this time."

"This is the norm, isn't it?"

Jeanne asked back.

"Several decades ago, Lord Morgan was accustomed to bringing an army of about 20,000 people on an expedition. The shortage in numbers was made up by more auxiliary troops. Even our auxiliary troops would not attack in full force to avoid systematic destruction in battle."

Just like this time, the only Rose Hunter who actually participated in the battle was the 3rd Assault Squadron led by Jeanne: even if they were completely wiped out here, the Rose Hunter Legion would not be too seriously hurt. After all, as long as the system and a certain number of senior officers and soldiers were still there, rebuilding a legion was not a difficult task.

"That's the truth."

Davout spread out his hands.

"And I think you can understand that Lord Morgan does not want the number of legionaries to drop below 70,000 again in a short period of time. Therefore, we will not invest more forces in this battle. Although we have brought 20,000 warriors, the number of people actually engaged in the battle is less than 4,000."

"As for the Midnight Lords, they only brought more than a thousand people in total, and most of them were from the Destroyer Division. Lord Conrad's idea was to let his descendants take this opportunity to learn more about the destructive tactics that the Dark Angels are best at."

"After all, there aren't many opportunities to see the First Legion at work."

The Midnight Lord, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke with a typical Nostramo sneer.

"So, this is the situation: there are now fifty thousand Astartes on this planet, and the Dark Angels alone account for more than forty thousand: they have shed the most blood in the war, so the Primarch has no intention of competing with them for honor."

"What's more, from where we are, we are in the enemy's core area. We cannot defeat it with the forces we have. We must get support from the First Legion. Think about how many people are left in your Third Assault Squadron?"

"Fifty-seven percent."

Jeanne frowned.

"But we can fight to the last man."

"I have no doubt."

Davout nodded.

If he hadn't pulled them before, these silver-haired crazy women would have rushed directly into the enemy's core fortress group. Dawu had no doubt that they could really do it. You know, the Third Assault Squadron, as a rapid strike force, is fully equipped with jet hoverbikes and light fighters. They have a record of defeating small groups of Evil Sun Orcs in mobile warfare.

And the casualty rate of 43%...

To be honest: at least for the Hunter Rose, this is really nothing.

This is not the first time that these silver-haired female believers have been annihilated in battle...

At this point, Davout had to give another reassurance.

"Well, Jeanne."

"You go back first and let your warriors rest for half an hour. The Dark Angels will take over the battle line in half an hour. They will not come alone. According to the accurate intelligence I have obtained, the Primarch will launch a general attack on the enemy from us."

"Lord Morgan is here in person!"

"Perhaps Lord Jonson."

"Oh...with his Dark Angel?"

"In fact, it's not just the Dark Angels."

Dawu scratched his smooth head.

"It is said that Lord Jonson will bring a mixed force consisting of Dawnbreakers, Dark Angels, and Night Lords. You will also be placed under his command at that time. He said he wants to use this to accumulate experience."

"Gain experience? What experience?"

"Uh……"

Dawu was stunned for a moment.

"I don't know that."

"Anyway, I remember when Lord Zhuang Sen said this..."

"He was laughing so happily."

(End of this chapter)