How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 388: In order to save the soon-to-be-disbanded Celestial Lions, Sigismund decided to become a lawyer

Although the peaceful conclusion of this honor duel did successfully resolve the conflict between the Ultramarines and the Black Templars and provided a foundation for the two chapters to gradually reconcile, it also did remind the two Primarchs once again how this conflict began.

Not to mention how this unprecedented grand honor duel ended, nor how this "miracle" would be spread by word of mouth among witnesses, and then gradually spread from Macragge to other worlds, and finally spread to the entire empire. After the two primarchs temporarily calmed the crowd that was agitated by enthusiasm and returned to the meeting hall, the feud between the Heavenly Lions and the Inquisition was immediately put on the agenda again by Dorn.

When facing this agenda, Guilliman had a rare negative feeling of "the plan was disrupted". In his plan, which originally existed only in his subconscious mind, this issue should be brought to the table after a while. How long this "wait" should be depends on how long it takes for his brother to get used to the current situation of the Empire in ten thousand years - it's not that Dorn can't make a judgment based on the actual situation. Any Primarch with sufficient information sources would not make such a low-level mistake. But in the previous conversations (or disputes), Guilliman easily found that Dorn had not yet adapted to the present era.

The stone's mind may not be that flexible. Others may not feel it, but Guilliman, who is also a Primarch, can clearly feel that Dorn now has to make a negligible pause when making any decision about the Empire - his subconscious will first output a strategy to him according to the Empire ten thousand years ago, and then he must consciously remember that the current Empire is no longer the same as it was in the past, and then make another more appropriate strategy according to the current situation. Sometimes, these two completely different strategies will even fight in his own mind. Previously, the reason why he and his brother had disputes was mostly because of the strategy that automatically emerged from his subconscious and was significantly behind the times: with another reliable brother to support him, he could unconsciously allow himself to stay in his comfort zone for a little longer.

Guilliman originally wanted to wait until Dorn was more accustomed to the current Empire and could remove the previous step from his thinking logic before discussing these specific issues with him. The Imperial Regent believed that their communication efficiency would be higher, but it would not make any decisive difference...

The Ultramarines Primarch cleared his mind of all this clutter and returned to the specifics of the issue. The feud between the Lions and the Inquisition is well documented: the conflict between the two began when the Lions questioned the specific handling of an Inquisitor who sent an Extermination Order to a planet. The Lions believed that the Inquisitor's decision was too extreme, that the civilians on that world could still be saved, and that sending an Extermination Order to it was undoubtedly an irresponsible waste of Imperial assets; but the Inquisitor who could make such a decision certainly had his own arrogance and paranoia, so in the face of the unusually loud and clear public condemnation of the Sons of Dorne, some disasters against the Lions began to ferment in the shadows.

First, the ship carrying the top leaders of the Celestial Lions Chapter, which was heading to Terra to submit a petition for impeachment, inexplicably got lost in the warp, and its wreckage was not discovered until several years later in an area where the Orks were active. All the crew members on board were missing, and as can be imagined, their fate was not very optimistic; then, in the Third War for Armageddon, the Celestial Lions Chapter suffered heavy losses due to receiving erroneous or delayed battlefield information, and there were even some snipers in the dark corners of the battlefield who were obviously not Orks, using the Imperial standard long-range laser sniper rifles to specifically snipe the Chapter's pharmacists, so that the Chapter could not even recover the gene-seed of their fighting brothers; if it were not for the Black Templars who happened to be on the same battlefield and helped their brothers of the same blood, the story of the Celestial Lions Chapter would most likely end here, but looking at their current state, it is hard to say whether this kind of help simply continued the Chapter's shame and pain.

During the time when the Great Rift was opening and astropathic communication was not smooth, the home planet of the Celestial Lions had been captured by a Chaos warband calling itself the "Exiles". Aiken Dubaku, who took over the position of Chapter Master under the witness of Grand Marshal Helbrecht of the Black Templars, was also "assassinated" by the assassin Callidus in a secret meeting with the Chapter Master of the Emperor's Spears. The remaining soldiers were leaderless and decided to fight the enemy to the death in grief and anger, but during a most basic transfer operation, the only remaining battle barge of the Chapter was involved in the turbulence of the Warp. When they returned to the real universe by chance, they looked like this now.

The most infuriating thing is that in this series of events, although it is common sense to infer that it was someone in the Inquisition who planned all of this, in fact, there is no evidence to prove that "this was indeed done by the Inquisition."

To be fair, no matter who it is, after reading this "resume", it is hard not to be furious with the Inquisition. Not to mention Dorne, even Guilliman wanted to dismiss the Inquisition after reading it, not to mention Dorne. But since the establishment of the Inquisition after the Heresy, in the ten thousand years, this powerful spy organization has occupied a very important ecological niche in the Empire. It is so powerful that it cannot be dismissed on the spot today. The release of a policy with such a large impact cannot be based on emotions alone. Some things, even if they are right, will have to be considered in the long run due to various concerns.

By the way, not long after the arrival of the Celestial Lions, another Tribunal black ship leisurely lined up outside the Macragge Skyport. Regardless of the intention of this ship, whether it was really "just to dock for supplies and repairs" as claimed in the communication, it was obvious that no one would be willing to warmly entertain a Tribunal black ship at this time of year. Although it was unknown whether this ship had any connection with the lost Celestial Lions, Digris had decided to give the former the benefit of the doubt and blocked it at the airport customs with various clauses and policies.

Sadly, people are lazy, even the Primarchs are not immune. When two sides of a matter are presented to everyone at the same time, and one side is very difficult to deal with and the other side is relatively easy to deal with, people tend to choose to deal with the relatively easy side first. In this case, given that no matter how the Inquisition is arranged next, it is not a simple series of orders that can be resolved overnight, the "relatively easy" side is obviously the Celestial Lions itself.

But the current state of the Tianshi Chapter makes it difficult for them to continue to be called a "Chapter". The Chapter's home planet was destroyed, and the personnel were reduced to only 67 Astartes, without any senior officers or pharmacists. The only remaining "veteran" was a battle brother who was temporarily transferred to the rear line to serve as a recruit instructor before the "accident". Unfortunately, given that the Tianshi Chapter's personnel situation was already very stretched, this instructor brother's resume actually only had 82 years of experience. There is no home planet, no recruitment ground, no pharmacist, no veteran, no inheritance of the Chapter's history and culture - from all angles, the Tianshi Chapter has been essentially destroyed.

Of course, it is not impossible to prop it up again, but first of all, this involves a problem of cost and efficiency: a damaged Astartes Chapter will obviously need a lot of material and time costs to recover. The Empire is vast, and of course there is no shortage of recruiting planets, population, ships and weapons and equipment to supply a chapter. However, the problem is that, first of all, the Tianshi Chapter is nothing special from the perspective of paper performance, and investing so many resources in it is a bit tricky; secondly, considering that the current Tianshi Chapter wants to restore its basic combat effectiveness, the most optimistic prediction is that it will take about a century, which is not much different from building a new chapter, so why not use these resources to build a new one directly?

Even if these issues are not considered, if they are really forced to support, there will be some miscellaneous issues in the process, such as who will provide the land, who will provide the people, who will provide the money, and who will provide the labor. In the past, the Imperial Regent Guilliman could still make a dictatorial decision on this issue, but now that Dorne has returned to the Empire and the Celestial Lions are his descendants, Guilliman immediately became embarrassed on this issue, as if any decision he made would be suspected of usurping the throne and trying to seize control of other bloodline chapters - this is not a question of whether he has this intention or not. Even if Dorne believes that he does not, the Celestial Lions also believe that they do not. If this matter gets out and Logan Grimnar hears about it, he will definitely grumble about it in private. There must be many people in the Empire who share the same ideas as this Wolf Lord.

Therefore, Guilliman had to keep silent on this issue, and after he raised the topic, he gave the decision-making power to Dorn. After referring to the current situation of the Empire and thinking briefly, the latter finally came to a regrettable conclusion:

"We will preserve the historical records of the Heavenly Lions as much as possible, but the chapter will be disbanded and will not be rebuilt." He said, "This is bad news. I will personally explain it to the last of my descendants who are left in the chapter. Their history will be preserved as a warning." But at this time, Sigismund, who had been quietly standing beside Dorn since the duel, suddenly stepped forward and asked to speak. Dorn did not think much about it and granted it, so the Black Knight spoke:
"My Lord, I think it is too early to make such a decision immediately." He said, "Considering that the current situation of the Tianshi Chapter is most likely caused by the fact that the high-ranking members of the Chapter went to Holy Terra and intended to file a lawsuit against the Inquisition, I think a witness protection plan should be implemented for the Tianshi Chapter."

As soon as these words came out, a question mark quickly emerged in the minds of everyone present, including the two Primarchs. The Astartes Chapter is a purely military organization, and has its own set of operating logic under the loose control of the Empire. Legal terms such as "Witness Protection Program" are still too far away for them - not to mention that the Empire's territory is too large, and each world is actually completely independent, and there is no widely used written law. However, although the sense of existence is not high, thanks to the Ultimate Political Cattle Regent Malcador ten thousand years ago, the law, which is very necessary in the construction of the country, of course the Empire also has such a set of laws.

Unfortunately, the Empire is an obvious feudal monarchy. This means that the law does have a certain authority, but the orders issued by the Primarchs under the Emperor are more authoritative than the law in many cases. Therefore, although the Primarchs will consider the influence of legal factors when necessary, this is definitely not the first direction they will choose when thinking about problems.

But after the connection, this idea was not difficult to understand. Half a second later, Guilliman realized with a little horror that if this strategy continued, it would indeed be able to "save" the name of the Celestial Lions from a side angle, but this tortuous idea was very unlike something that the Son of Dorne, who always spoke straightforwardly, could come up with.

Dorn's thinking was obviously more straightforward - it wasn't that he couldn't think of it, but his personality made him tend not to think that way. The Primarch looked at Sigismund in confusion, as if he was meeting him for the first time. After a long while, he spoke and refuted seriously: "But this is meaningless. Judging from the results, the Celestial Lions did not successfully appeal the request for the Inquisition to verify the handling of the extermination order sent to the Hattar world, so naturally there is no case to be filed."

"Indeed, but the current situation of the Lions is: 'Because of their attempt to question the judgment of the Inquisition, they have been harassed and attacked by unknown forces, causing serious damage to the safety of people and property.'" Sigismund replied, "The Astartes, which exists in the Military Affairs Department, belongs to the Empire's standing armed forces and is one of the public tools of the state. The series of attacks suffered by the Lions should be regarded as 'unknown forces causing immediate damage to public tools of the state', and it is a public prosecution case applicable to special criminal laws. When handling the case, the 'Lions' organization as a whole should be regarded as the victim of the case, and witness protection should be carried out and the case should be investigated from beginning to end."

Guilliman smiled - he didn't think this was feasible, he just thought it was very interesting that Sigismund had proposed it. In contrast, Dorn's brows knitted even tighter on his already serious face. He stared at his offspring with a sharp gaze, as if he was not the son he once admired and trusted the most, but a transformed spirit. To be honest, if everyone who could enter the meeting room had not undergone strict security checks, and the think tanks present had not issued any warnings, Guilliman felt that he would not be able to help but doubt it.

"Who do you want to investigate? What do you want to investigate?" Dorn asked in a stern tone, almost reprimanding. "Given the way the Inquisition operates and their transcendent status in the Empire, would they leave any decisive evidence during their actions? How can you guarantee that the so-called 'witness protection program' will be effective? What will be the outcome of this matter in the end?"

"I don't think he wanted any 'results' in the first place." Guilliman had to remind him, trying to divert Dorn's insistence on "walking on the right path". "As long as witness protection is implemented, nothing can be found out and the trial cannot be held."

The investigation of the public property case, at least in form, must not be perfunctory. As long as no clues about the "unknown forces" are found, the investigation can continue. Thanks to the vast territory of the empire, unreliable transportation methods and bloated bureaucracy, this state of "continuous investigation" can easily last for hundreds of years without any clues. During this period, the Tianshi Regiment, which has retained its number due to witness protection, has plenty of time to catch its breath.

Dorn understood this, but he spoke immediately, still sounding angry: "Of course I know he doesn't want to win any results in these procedures. He wants to save the Celestial Lions, but where do the resources come from to save a chapter? Even if the Celestial Lions can be reborn, how can they ensure that the feud with the Inquisition will not lead to disastrous consequences again in the future?"

In his opinion, the Celestial Lions cannot recover from their current state of poverty and hardship by their own strength - but if they still need to allocate special resources to support them, it will be no different from the Primarch ordering the reorganization of the chapter. Utilitarianally speaking, there is nothing particularly outstanding about the past achievements of this chapter, and there is no special propaganda value in the historical stories. The current fragmented state makes it impossible to see the hope of re-forming combat effectiveness in the short term. The only thing that makes them special is the bad luck caused by "man-made disasters", but if bad luck can also be regarded as a resource, then the richest chapter in the world should be the Weepers.

Moreover, for a sub-group that was only established in M38, it was too difficult to gain a foothold before the Inquisition targeted it.

This rebuke that went straight to the heart of the matter obviously raised a problem that Sigismund could not solve. But although the Black Knight was obviously stuck, it seemed that he had thought about it. After a brief pause, he spoke very calmly: "I don't know, sir. But as long as the regiment is still there, there is still hope. I am not in a position to promise anything to the Celestial Lions on behalf of any organization. They will inevitably have a very difficult time without support. Maybe they can overcome these difficulties and find support for themselves to be reborn, or maybe they are not lucky enough and will wither away in the absence of supplies and personnel. But I still think that the Celestial Lions should not be disbanded - this is a very simple question of 'right and wrong'.

"——Looking at the painful and sad disaster of the Tianshi Chapter, it is clear that there is another organization that should be eliminated."

(End of this chapter)