40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 726 18. Catching the Eagle (V. Belisarius Kaul's One-Man War)
If anyone had been on the bridge of the Ardent with Belisarius Cawl at this moment, they would have easily come to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the ship.

Yes, it's not normal.

There was no vast array of contemplators on its bridge, no star charts constantly scrolling data, no busy sailors, and even few decorations. It was bare, with raw steel gray everywhere, looking surprisingly plain.

There are perhaps only two things here that are worth affirming and have an effect on the decoration.

One was the huge observation windows, through which the cold light of the universe could shine unimpeded into every corner of the bridge without turning on any lighting.

The second is a huge steel platform, with countless cables guarding it, making it look like a unique throne.
And Belisarius Caul stood on it.

Most of the cables, which were buried deep under the deck, connected his body, and from time to time there was a strange buzzing sound. His single eye was tightly closed, and the light of his prosthetic eye was also dim. His expression kept fluctuating between pain and calm, as if he was dreaming.

Well, the truth is probably not much different - remotely controlling more than hundreds of millions of fighter servants, hundreds of thousands of fighter jets and thousands of flying platforms used to provide weapons, supplies and medical assistance. How different is this from dreaming?

Call wished he could remember what normal sleep and dreaming felt like, so he could compare it to what he was feeling now.

He wanted to get it right, at least part of him did.

Nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-seven.

This number suddenly crossed Cole's mind. This was the total number of thought processes he was running at the same time. In other words, he had divided himself into 19,627 parts and assigned them one by one to handle the astronomical data torrent.

Every second, he has to complete at least millions of data interactions, which will be accurately transmitted to his main processor and multiple secondary processors, and finally converge into a huge wall in his thinking space.

Yes, he was imagining a wall covered with monitors, each displaying a different picture: Servants fighting in clusters, drones searching ruins for survivors, and flying platforms supplying ammunition to Chemos's auxiliary troops.
Part of Kawl couldn't help but feel a surge of pride: Could those rotten old undeads do something like this? Could they turn the tide like I had?

This question was thrown to another part of him, and the answer quickly became clear: No, they can't, but your arrogance is actually meaningless. If they can all have such an unimaginable power source like you, what is the difficulty in dividing nearly 20,000 thoughts?
Well, that makes sense, but it also means I can go a step further. I can feel that the fragment is far from reaching its limit.

Maybe I can
As soon as this thought arose, Kahl destroyed it neatly and efficiently, even the thought process was not spared.

He did it relentlessly, as if the knowledge and memories stored in the process were unimportant - and what effect did it have on him? A second or two of hesitation? A gurgling sound in his throat?
Perhaps it was both, or perhaps it was more, but Kaul no longer cared. Nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-six thought processes were running simultaneously at an unimaginable synchronization rate.

He had done similar things before, but never as radically as he was today. Time passed, and before he knew it, the walls and monitors that Caul had imagined disappeared, replaced by another feeling - every thought process was taking him to where the servitors and drones were.

He can see, smell and feel almost everything.

For example, right now, he felt like he was standing in the 17th megacity of Chemos, fighting against the giant rot flies that blocked out the sky. The reinforced tracks that replaced his legs were roaring, the intelligent enemy-seeking system simultaneously marked tens of thousands of enemies that needed to be eliminated in the neurons, and the heavy arc launcher on the shoulder was humming to warm up.
Then it launched, along with the other thirty-nine hundred and ninety-nine combat servitors in the battle group.

Electric arcs covered the sky above their heads like a giant net, and the blue-white light of lightning completely enveloped the rot flies, electrocuting them so that their limbs were broken, their flesh was burnt, and their swollen abdomens exploded in an instant.

The human flesh and blood that they had swallowed not long ago also fell, covering the bodies of the robot servants. The sensor transmitted the smell back to Caul through a complex translation program, causing his appendages behind him to twitch, and his desire to kill was not only not quelled, but even more vigorous.
However, at the same time, he was also searching for survivors in Megacity No. 2, which was extremely far away from Megacity No. 17.

He was not on the surface, but somewhere deep underground. According to the map and extremely simple knowledge of surveying and mapping, the place where he was was once the city's municipal square. Under the rampage of those huge vines, it was broken into uneven fragments and then buried underground.

Based on program calculations and radar detection, Kaul believes that there are still people alive here - the results of calculations and detection are always correct, but not necessarily good. There are indeed people alive here, but their lives are like candles in the wind and need to be saved urgently.
Some giant worm is feasting here.

Using the sensors of the robot servant to peer forward, Kohl saw that the sunken fragments of the square had been completely filled with people's blood and body parts, and the fat, white body of the worm was swimming happily in the sea of ​​blood.

Absurdly and painfully, a fountain sculpture in the square was spared from the disaster. A lot of blood was flowing from a jug held by a stone girl into a huge stone bowl.

The bowl was held in the hands of an Emperor's son who was also carved out of stone. There was a calm smile on his face, but it was now stained with blood.

Caul's real body shook - in the fury of his mind space, he calmly issued new orders to the battle group.

A thousand fighter servants immediately cut their landing ropes, and the various powerful potions stored in their bodies were quickly injected, bringing unparalleled short-term burst of power.

They quickly landed on the monster's body and began to severely injure it with the curved blades with decomposition fields installed in their hands. The other three thousand fighter servants that were still slowly descending used the plasma rapid cannons in their left hands to fire together at this moment, covering the huge body of the thing that was tens of meters long in an instant.
The epidermis was broken, pus splashed, and the thing let out a low howl, then rolled over, causing the square stuck between the rock walls to tremble violently.

Seeing this, Cawl made a prompt decision and activated the incendiary cannons on his heavy servitors, which he had not preheated for fear of harming the survivors. Five hundred points of light flashed together, and the power of Om Messiah was briefly manifested here, and the creature had turned into a huge, burning corpse, illuminating the darkness.

The survivors huddled in the ruined town hall and watched all this in a daze. It was not until Cawl manipulated a servitor to approach them and shouted the name of the Emperor through a microphone that tears flowed down their cheeks.
All of the above are just the "immersive" experience brought by the two processes in the past minute and a half. With every second of real time that passes, Kohl encounters, kills, and saves many more things.

He saved a group of children who were blocked by their parents in the air-raid shelter of the sixth city; he supported a group of auxiliary troops fighting on the high-rise building in the center of the eleventh city; he purified all the zombies infected by the plague and resurrected in the residential area of ​​the twentieth city.
He was able to experience a lot with every second, but he still hadn't achieved the one secondary goal he had set for himself.

He had not yet found Anazion Sosa Kaur.

The nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-six thought processes that govern the Archsage spoke in unison: I must find him, he must not fall into the hands of those things, otherwise I will betray his life, the Emperor, and everyone else.

He searched, commanded one battle group after another, and retrieved the search records of one drone after another.
He walked in the burning wilderness of the Fourth City, propped up the Emperor's statue in the collapsed cathedral of the Ninth City, and dug out human remains one after another from the collapsed and sunken city center of the Twelfth City - human corpses should be buried, not left here, contaminated by flies and maggots, and rotting to become another slave of the evil god.

He is so focused, but not anxious, and even has the leisure to joke with himself. If I don't give him so much freedom, and become a real dictator, treating him with the attitude of treating my own work, will the current situation be better? Even if I just ask him which city he wants to visit?

Ah, Emperor, I hope you understand that I am not one to weigh life against life, but Anazion is an exception.

In this battle, I can die, the Emperor's Children can die, anyone on Chemos can die, but him. His blood must not be collected by that thing.

This sentence merged into the complex sea of ​​his thoughts like a drop of water, leaving no trace, only this little ripple. And Belisarius Cawl did not realize that he had just prayed to the Emperor.

Did he get a response? Perhaps, but it could also be that the number of his servitors and drones covering the entire surface of Chemos had done something inevitable - in a ruin in the south of the Third City, through the sensor of a drone, he saw Anazion's face.

The charred black left by the flames and smoke covered his pale face, which looked like some kind of ancient war makeup. There was a huge wound on the right side of his forehead, which had now scabbed over, but the traces of blood were still there. He stood straight, staring at the sky, his body covered in blood, and around him were the corpses of Chemos people with painful and twisted expressions.

Kaul flew the drone towards him.

"Report to me, Anazion." The drone uttered a cold synthetic voice. "I see signs of fighting."

But his creation shook its head and for the first time in its life did not follow his command.

"I have nothing to say, Creator. As you can see, I am injured, but not seriously. I have done a self-assessment, and the results show that my combat effectiveness has not decreased. I am not exhausted, and the diseases that exist here cannot affect me."

Call heard what he didn't say - and he was shocked by it.

Is he asking me?

Looking at that calm face, Kaul suddenly felt strange. Normally, he was not a very tolerant creator. When dealing with his creations, he could not even tolerate a small operating error.

In his opinion, although his works and creations may not reach perfection, they can certainly operate stably in the most difficult environment until they are damaged.
But now, he no longer felt that familiar anger. On the contrary, he even felt relieved.

Is there something wrong with my personality? He asked himself doubtfully and searched.

Nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-six thought processes reported together after one second: No, Belisarius Cawl's personality was perfect and sound, but he was still arrogant and unreasonable.

Ok
The drone once again uttered a cold voice: "Do you want to stay here and fight?"

Anazion nodded firmly.

"Need I remind you of your great value, Firstcast?" Cawl deliberately called him by that code name, making a final attempt at persuasion. "I remember telling you long ago that even a drop of your blood could drive someone or something mad."

"I know, Creator."

Anazion took two steps back and bowed slightly. He lowered his head and spoke calmly.

"I am a miracle, a masterpiece of genetic engineering, and the shield you envisioned for humanity to protect against threats. You told me these words, and I took them to heart. Now is the time for the shield to work."

"I will stay here and fight. Perhaps I cannot match your other creations in terms of efficiency, and I know you will use this argument to refute me, but if my efforts can save one more person, I think it is totally worth it."

Kohl fell silent again, with many completely opposite thoughts converging in his mind.

He agreed, disagreed, worried that Anazion would be hurt, and felt that what he said was absolutely right - and in the end, he calmed down.

These thoughts were shattered by a word that came from the depths of Kaul's memory. The word came from himself, he had never really said it out loud, and there was only one person in the world who had heard it.

First, I want to save a child.

Standing on his lonely bridge, Belisarius Cawl laughed.

In the ruins of the dilapidated southern Third City, the drone roared coldly and gave praise.

"Very well - stay here for ten minutes! I will bring you armour and weapons. In the name of the Emperor, you will be their shield! Fight for humanity, my creation!"

"As you wish."

Anazion straightened up and answered.

He glanced sideways at the body of Inspector Clay Godun and clenched his fists little by little.

(End of this chapter)