Emperor's Bane

Chapter 620: Happy Like Jonson

"I have fought for the Empire for two hundred years."

"But before this, I have never seen such a huge teleportation array: thousands of Astartes warriors ready to go lined up in formation, and they only occupied the core area. In the outer and outer unstable areas, there are actually more people, tens of thousands."

"But unfortunately, our Gene Mother does not allow anyone to stay outside her palm. She has always been like this. If it is an outsider, she can be lenient, but if it is us Dawnbreakers, then any non-combat losses will make her furious."

"I can totally understand that feeling."

"So, I obey this order completely."

As he stood there, muttering to himself like in a dream, Char, the chief commander of the Dawnbreaker Legion, the Knight Lefebvre, opened his eyes calmly, clenched his iron fists, and the large power sword hissed in his palm: his last battle brother had just arrived.

They were ready to set off. The only thing that prevented them from setting off was the chattering of a certain steward of the guards at the front of the team, loud enough for everyone to hear what he was saying: nothing more than numbers and flattery.

"All sixteen companies are ready for battle. If we add in special forces such as the Knights of Lefebvre, we will deploy eight thousand five hundred warriors to the Ullanor battlefield at once, accounting for half of the expeditionary force. This is based on the premise that we ignore the twelve vanguard companies that have already set out."

"Of course, the most important thing is that you will personally command this battle. This is more inspiring than any message of reinforcements. A considerable number of combat brothers have not had the honor of fighting alongside you for a long time. They miss you on the battlefield. On the other hand, Captains Hector and Davout in the vanguard have already promised me that they will use their lives to ensure that the landing site you choose will not be disturbed in the slightest."

Rana was still talking incessantly, but the battle brothers behind him had already started to show mocking expressions: the only reason they did not laugh out loud at these nonsense was the Primarch who had his back to them and was wondering what he was thinking at the moment.

After all, everyone knows that Lana has always been Morgan's most trusted son. The power and status given to him by the Primarch surpass everyone else. Although Lana has been constantly sacrificing and diluting his authority over the past few decades, this has made his position more stable.

The Primarch trusted him more, and his battle-brothers respected him more: even though many now laughed at his fawning behavior in front of the Lord Chancellor, in times of war, it was precisely these same people who would become Rana's most trusted warriors, as had been proven countless times before.

During the long period when the Spider Queen did not grant her offspring the honor of "fighting side by side", it was Lanar and his colleagues who supported the battle formation of the Second Legion. Morgan's indulgence allowed them to quickly grow into trustworthy and reliable warriors, possessing the wisdom and authority to command the entire legion: as long as the Primarch could give him the power.

However, this does not change the fact that Rana is talking nonsense at this moment.

Char whispered in his heart.

Even if... what you said makes some sense...

Knight Le Fay muttered to himself, but before he could finish his self-defense and express his contempt for the Lord Chancellor of the Guards, the Astartes' superhuman hearing allowed him to catch the slight cough of the Primarch at the front of the queue: the air was quiet at this moment, everyone stopped their mental activities, and thousands of eyes stared at the Spider Queen who was slowly turning around in the front.

[Are you ready? ]

Morgan asked, smiling.

No one spoke, and the Primarch answered with more than 8,000 pairs of pupils filled with fighting spirit.

【very good. 】

Morgan nodded, then waved to the shadow on one side, and Virgo, who had light pink twin ponytails, quickly came to her mother's side: Char blinked in disbelief. Of course he knew the primarch's chief maid, but what made him feel incredible was that he was clearly one of the top 100 Dawnbreaker soldiers, but he could not see clearly what Virgo had done just now.

Really...

Knight Le Fay withdrew his thoughts and noticed that many of his subordinates were in the same shock as he was. Char couldn't help but cough lightly to remind them that since it was about the Primarch, they should forget it in time.

Looking back, Morgan did not hide anything about his eldest daughter's words.

[I will go to the front line. The command of the fleet has been distributed to various admirals: since most of the greenskin fleet and orbital defense devices have been destroyed by us, they can still provide the remaining ground fire support. You just need to pay attention to special situations and the new message sent by the Spirit of Vengeance. ]

【Also, take this. 】

Morgan pressed an exquisite snowy owl statue into his eldest daughter's hands.

[The spiritual energy I deposited in this statue should be enough to support the entire teleportation array until the end of the war. I will adjust the coordinates below and let the backup troops set off at the agreed time: Remember not to overload these devices, otherwise it will instantly blow up the entire Aurora, and perhaps the fleets around us. ]

Virgo nodded.

"Mother, if I need to use that..."

[It's not that time yet: it's just the Ullanor Empire. ]

[It’s not that bastard…]

The fierce words and low complaints from the Primarch did not reach Char's ears after all. Just as his brain was still processing the earlier words, a dizzying sense of dislocation, mixed with white light, instantly devoured his soul, as if the whole world was distorting and changing before his eyes.

All that could be heard was the whisper of the Primarch activating the teleportation array.

This physical discomfort is a chronic disease of teleportation technology. Even Morgan himself cannot avoid it, but the Spider Queen can minimize the negative impact of the teleportation array through her own improvements: Char can feel this very clearly. Compared with the countless times of teleportation in his life, the torture and pain this time are greatly reduced.

After a moment of weightlessness, they had arrived at their destination, with the only side effect being a slight feeling of nausea: although Char did not feel that he had moved, he clearly realized that he had been extracted from his soul for a period of time, so when he opened his eyes again, the scene in front of him had changed from the warm bridge deck of the Aurora to the burning iron curtain on the land of Ullanor.

"We have arrived in the coffin of hell."

Someone whispered beside Char.

What he said... was damn right!

Char clenched his teeth, and after the bright light completely faded away, he carefully observed the battlefield where blood and sweat were about to be shed: Ullanor had now become hell, or rather, this damn world had been a living hell from the very beginning.

The Crown World of the Greenskin Empire gave Char some very unpleasant associations.

Memories of the dead began to attack him.

Because…it’s just like Terra.

Like Terra before the Emperor came.

And Terra during the Unification War.

As a Terran of the Legion, Knight Lefebvre has experienced both of the above-mentioned periods completely. The two diametrically opposite hells occupied the entire first half of the life of this Terran veteran, and now, they are right in front of him, perfectly combined into one. It's really fucked up.

The blue-gray sky was filled with thick dust and haze. Only through some cracks like those in volcanic rocks could the sickening sunlight be seen, but even this warmth was gone, because the fury of the Imperial Navy had torn apart the Iron Curtain of Ullanor, shattering it like a mirror, dragging pollution and haze all over the place, mixed with the disgusting smell of the Orks' spores.

Beneath this ruined paradise lost is the real hell on earth. The war between the Imperial army and the Orks has torn the entire surface of Ullanor into two parts, one half is covered with rust and dirt on the greenskin armor, and the other half is covered with the blood and stench between the Astartes blades. Two waves of steel hit each other non-stop on the flat wilderness of Ullanor. Pieces of land the size of a hive city were conquered and lost one after another, and then sawed and fought over, and finally buried under countless corpses, their original appearance could no longer be seen.

Mountains of dead. Mountains of dead everywhere.

Ullanor was burning, and a dozen hours of war would be enough for the army of the Human Empire to permanently occupy a piece of purified land on this world, becoming a scar that tore apart the Orc capital: when the Lord of Mankind himself and his four heirs, as well as Horus, Jonson, Fulgrim and Mortarion, jointly launched the first wave of offensive on Ullanor, it was natural for them to seize a beachhead.

And more than ten hours later, after Chagatai Khan and Sanguinius led their legions to join the war, this original beachhead had turned into a spear tip, heading straight for the throne of King Urge, Emperor of Ullanor: the bloody path opened up by the Lord of Mankind, his wolf-shepherd god, and his imperial guards side by side could be seen clearly even in space, and was ten thousand times more spectacular than the Eternal Avenue in front of the palace.

Tens of millions of greenskins had created this wonder with their own lives, because they had fanatically launched an attack on the greatest warriors in the galaxy the moment the Emperor landed, and they had not stopped for a moment until now, after more than a dozen hours of unilateral massacre.

At this moment, greenskins from all over the world are rushing here in an endless stream, like iron filings attracted by a magnet: the power of the Emperor is spreading at an astonishing speed. No greenskin is afraid of it. All the beasts are just caught up in the most frenzied bloodshed. The Emperor of Ullanor may be the only sober one.

This in turn greatly eased the pressure on other human armies on Ullanor: while the Emperor was wantonly reaping the ugly heads of every challenger in thousands, other human legions on the Ullanor front could take advantage of the opportunity when the greenskins' attention was diverted and freely display their respective tactics.

The Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Death Guard and even the White Scars, every legion is accelerating towards the royal capital of Ullanor. They stand in awe of the Emperor's power and they respect the majesty of Horus, but that does not mean that these warriors fighting on the front lines do not want to bring the greatest glory of the Ullanor War to the heads of their beloved Primarchs.

Even the Dawnbreakers thought so. Only half of the Dawnbreaker Vanguard Company stayed beside Morgan's landing point, while the other half actively participated in the war. They followed closely behind Jonson and Fulgrim, and in the shadows after the victory, they hid psychic beacons that could directly communicate with or even summon their own Primarchs: once the Dawnbreakers' iron hooves broke through the walls of Ullanor, these beacons would definitely play an unexpected role.

Morgan on this...

Well... completely clueless... that's it.

The Lord of Dawn nodded, both in response to her children who were waiting for her and in an effort to convince herself in her heart. She glanced casually at the land beside her: the original Emperor's landing point had become the rear base of the human army on the battlefield of Ullanor. A large number of support troops and medical personnel could be seen, as well as the greenskin corpses that had not been cleaned up in time.

This was the first time Morgan had carefully observed the greenskins of Ullanor: he saw that the protection they wore was actually quite backward, with rusty armor fastened to the limbs of these beasts with belts and bolts, far inferior to the most irregular mortal auxiliary troops under Morgan's command. But if you look at those damaged pneumatic generators and exquisite firearms, you can get an incredible sense of combination.

This is what greenskin is.

The Primarch nodded, emptied her eyes and mind, and began to look for her relatives on the chaotic battlefield, while thinking about where her next target would be: the investment of eight thousand Dawnbreaker warriors is enough to completely reverse the situation on any front, and even determine who can chop off Emperor Ullanor's head.

Now, Horus and Jonson were almost on the same level, but it was worth noting that, perhaps because of the haste of the war or another mission, the Wolf God and the Emperor were actually out of touch at this moment: he and the Lion each occupied one side of the Lord of Mankind, keeping a similar distance from each other.

Morgan made a mental note of this.

Then, the Spider Queen's consciousness looked towards other directions of the battlefield. She could easily discern the advance route of the Dawnbreaker Legion in the previous ten hours, because her descendants had placed their small signs next to every noteworthy target. The farthest sign was now right next to Morgan's will, a special individual named Fulgrim.

At this moment, Phoenix was standing on a scrap iron mountain in Ullanor, surrounded by a dozen guards and lord commanders, gazing at the battlefield in the distance and giving orders. As for Jonson, who was supposed to travel with him, he was now a little further ahead, leading his knights, happily conquering the east and west in the rolling tide of greenskins.

Indeed, Morgan had never seen her Caliban cousin so happy.

He was as happy as Guilliman who discovered that his father, King Konor, was still alive.

Um... That's right...

Had she told Guilliman that she had found a spirit similar to King Konor in the Warp?

While shaking her head and sighing, Morgan silently did her old job, which was to collect floating souls from the battlefield: but at this time, the Spider Queen no longer needed to rely on this small business to increase her strength, and the souls of the greenskins were not really a tonic, so the Spider Queen's target naturally shifted to those Astartes warriors who unfortunately died in Ullanor.

She collected them carefully in order, starting with the Dawnbreakers, followed by the Dark Angels. Once she had collected both, she moved on to the others: the Ultramarines, the Imperial Fists, the Custodes, the Emperor's Children, or the Blood Angels, the Luna Wolves...

It is worth noting that when Morgan collected the souls of dozens of guardsmen who had unfortunately died in Ullanor, she noticed that the Lord of Humanity, who was killing people on the front line, suddenly turned his head and glanced at her: just a look from the soul was enough to make Morgan's silver hair stand up.

(According to the novel The Wolf of Burning Dust, the Emperor lost at least a dozen of his guardsmen in the Battle of Goron, and it is reasonable to lose dozens of guardsmen in Ullanor.)
It was not until Morgan quietly gathered these golden and transparent souls, which even she knew could never be corrupted, together and placed them on the edge of her own soul to indicate that she would return them after the battle, that the Emperor's gaze slowly shifted away.

At the same time, he generously pointed out the direction for his daughter to advance, obviously noticing Morgan's hesitation at the moment. The Spider Queen followed the guidance, and her two light eyebrows wrinkled involuntarily.

Horus?
The Emperor asked her to... support Horus?

Morgan pursed her lips, then she suddenly remembered something and belatedly began to look for another brother on the battlefield: Fortunately, Sanguinius's flying soul was not difficult to find: this guy was the only one who could jump left and right in Morgan's soul exploration.

Flying fast is willful: Morgan initially thought someone was being knocked away by a giant.

At this moment, although the Archangel and his Ninth Legion had not yet rushed to the front line of the war, they were only diligently clearing out some greenskin reinforcements that would affect the front line. However, Sanguinius' own trajectory was very clear: after the Ninth Legion's work was almost completed, the Archangel of Baal was approaching with the excuse of [pursuing the remaining greenskin remnants]...

Fulgrim's location.

【Aha~】

The Primarch chuckled, attracting the impatient descendants around him.

"Where are we to support, my Lord?"

Rana asked first.

【Is this...】

The Spider Queen laughed.

[Just follow me: I know where the most critical battlefield is. ]

[By the way, Rana: We need to tune our communication channel to the lowest frequency.]

"Ah, why..."

【After all, on this battlefield. 】

[Even if it is the Emperor's order, it will be subject to considerable interference, right? ]

Morgan smiled. Her most trusted offspring would certainly not contradict her.

And as the Spider Queen's army began to advance towards the location of the Emperor's Children, the Lord of Avalon did not forget to send a communication to his own kin flying through the sky: Sanguinius's reply came swiftly.

He said nothing, but Morgan could sense it when the archangel knew that his dear sister, like him, was heading in Fulgrim's direction.

He was happy: like a Jonson.

(End of this chapter)