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

Chapter 410 Ready to go
Storm's Edge didn't land so well.

This ship, formerly the "Nautilus" submarine, has not completely erased its original structural paradigm even after being modified by Sion and Da Vinci to meet the needs of amphibious operations - that is, the aerodynamic structure on the hull of this submarine has almost no part that serves the purpose of "gliding". Therefore, when the power system of the Storm Edge is disabled, the forced landing posture of the ship is always not so elegant.

Thankfully, her landing wasn't a disaster.

The Triton engine was overloaded during the main gun firing and propulsion, but fortunately no serious failure occurred. The engine room perfectly executed all the instructions issued by the control room. The problem in this process was the energy transmission pipeline. Xion and Da Vinci did leave redundancy when building this part. At that time, it can be said that they considered the most extreme situation, so that the maximum throughput of Storm Edge on the ether could reach the level of Star Breath - but in this universe, only "planetary scale" redundancy is not enough: supplying the Holy Sword Arms with full power has already pushed the energy channel in Storm Edge to the upper limit of carrying capacity, not to mention maintaining the propulsion device, electromagnetic shield, and receiving the restraining force support of Macragge Star Soul. In this desperate gamble, the maximum peak energy rushing in the channel even exceeded 200% of the maximum designed carrying capacity. In this way, the fact that Storm Edge did not suddenly explode and disintegrate in the process of firing can only be attributed to the miracle caused by "Fujimaru Ritsuka's super good luck".

"This is really the blessing of the Emperor." Akurdona, who witnessed the whole process in the control room, said fearfully.

"I have to remind you with regret that since we tore through the barrier and entered the Great Temple, this kind of 'holy favor' has become a consumable item." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "And I have already used some of it."

The "Temple" is a kind of pseudo-god's domain that can block the sight of other gods. At the beginning, during the 81 days of escape in the Crystal Demon Palace, the Glorious Composite Grand Temple helped Fujimaru Ritsuka a lot with this feature, but now it has become a pure obstacle. Now, the only Emperor's spiritual energy that Fujimaru Ritsuka can use is the one that He pre-stored in the small statue. However, the Master of Chaldea, who had been used to a difficult life before meeting the Emperor, thought that this was enough.

Everyone in the control room could see the red flashing error messages. Five energy pathways on the Stormboundary had been fused in a short period of time. However, Fujimaru Ritsuka ordered that the circuit leading to the summoning room be repaired first, rather than the damage that interrupted the power supply to the device that kept the fuselage aloft. Akurdona wanted to protest the priority of these two things until he realized how close the ground was to them after passing through the barrier.

Any damage control and repairs would not be useful at this falling distance, but psychic power could. Before the Storm's Edge really plunged catastrophically into the desert, Fujimaru Ritsuka summoned the Skyhawk Staff and used a crude method similar to telekinesis to barely resolve the disaster to the point of simply "not so good", saving the main structure of the ship and the lives of everyone on board.

But this is the limit of her personal efforts - if she wants the Storm Edge to move again on its own, she must rely on the hard work of sailor Nemo's phantom in the ship. And this will bring another problem: how to deal with enemy attacks.

Akuldona had obviously thought of this, so he reminded him, "They have anti-aircraft firepower. I caught a glimpse of some when I fell. I don't think those anti-aircraft guns and vehicles are the temple's own things, so the Iron Warriors must be stationed here."

"It's hard for me to imagine that given Ozymandias's character, he would allow this - mainly referring to breaking ground on the temple he built." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, "The good news is that there is no big problem with the electromagnetic shield itself or in terms of energy transmission. It is simply overloaded and can be turned on again after cooling down for a few minutes. The camouflage mechanism that mainly operates by magic can also operate normally. The bad news is that Mr. Ferrus reminded me early on that these things are useless in the face of the current detection methods and firepower of the empire."

"What's next?"

"Let's take another look. Arjuna has already boarded the outer deck and is on standby. There is a plain desert around us, so at least we won't be caught off guard by long-range artillery fire."

Fujimaru Ritsuka sorted the maintenance priorities on the console, then turned back and said, "Anyway, first make sure everyone is ready for combat at any time. I'll go see if I can get in touch with the Hera Fortress."

"Radio communications have stopped," Akurdona said. "We can't contact the outside of the barrier using normal means."

"Captain Santo has made a modified quantum communication device underground in the fortress. Storm Edge should be able to connect to it." Fujimaru Ritsuka answered as he walked towards the door of the control room. "Before takeoff, I told him through telepathy to turn on that thing."

Akurdona had more to say, but before he opened his mouth and before Fujimaru Ritsuka actually walked into the sensing range of the control room door, the door slid open to both sides in advance - the fully armed Pegasus, holding his helmet, lowered his head, and walked in from the door.

This scene really made Akuldona feel dazed. As a clone of Fulgrim, Pegasus's appearance was not different enough from the third Primarch to be noticed at first sight, and his temperament was at least 80% similar. When he put on the gold-plated armor and slung the flaming sword around his waist, even the Primarch would probably mistake him for his uncorrupted brother at the first glance.

For the former head of the palace swordsmen, the scene before him was indeed like yesterday. The Purple Court Phoenix, wrapped in luxurious armor, was ready to go to the battlefield with his offspring. This was a scene that Akultona was quite familiar with when he was alive, but at that time he thought it was just an ordinary scene...

Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice quickly pulled him out of this thought. After all, the Master of Chaldea could be considered someone who had seen Fulgrim in person (in the illusion), but strangely, she was not at all confused by this superficial resemblance: "I'm sorry to ask you to get dressed so suddenly, Mr. Pegasus. I hope you didn't hit your head in the armoury because of the bump just now."

"Ferus's craftsmanship is not that crude." Pegasus blurted out a little uneasy, and then felt that he shouldn't call him so intimately. In order to cover up this embarrassment, he immediately began to change the topic: "Although I don't know where you got these...things...from, but you just handed them to me?"

"What's wrong?" Fujimaru Ritsuka asked knowingly, "Is there anything inappropriate?"

As a clone of the rebellious primarch, he could not help but be grateful for the trust in "allowing him to be fully armed in an emergency", but in fact, even he himself did not dare to fully trust himself, so Pegasus was a little discouraged: "Do we have to continue to play dumb in this situation?"

"Do we have to continue to worry about someone who can't possibly be there in this situation?" Fujimaru Ritsuka asked back, "Or do you not have the confidence that you can keep him 'absent'?"

This retort choked Pegasus. Fujimaru Ritsuka knew that he sometimes had hallucinations and talked to some kind of echo from the subspace. Pegasus also knew this. This was the result of Akurdona acting as a middleman and passing messages between the two of them without consulting them. In theory, in this matter, Fujimaru Ritsuka should be the one responsible for helping Pegasus solve the problem; but in fact, when Pegasus was confronted with such an obvious provocation, he would automatically fall into Fujimaru Ritsuka's trap, given that he was fully aware of the cause and effect and the absurdity of the matter.

"Okay." Pegasus held his breath and nodded, "I will prove it." "I believe you." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was not trying to fight with the other party, also nodded in agreement, "But as the person who is supposed to help you with the 'diagnosis', I still have to ask: How do you feel now? Do the voices in your head appear frequently?"

Pegasus paused briefly and replied, "Not at this moment. When I first rose from beneath the Hera Fortress, the sound was active for a while, but after I boarded this ship, it became quiet again, until now."

Since the brief pause could be interpreted as thinking or recalling, Fujimaru Ritsuka did not think that this was a complaint deliberately made up by the patient for the sake of fighting. So she concluded: "It seems that the energy of the subspace does have an impact on this symptom, and the Emperor's psychic energy also has a certain degree of inhibitory effect on it. I don't know what will happen after we get off the ship like this. If you feel something is wrong at that time, please be sure to speak up immediately, and I can take some temporary measures for it."

Pegasus nodded in agreement, but seemed a little absent-minded, as if the armor he was wearing and the weapon on his waist made him feel uncomfortable. Fujimaru Ritsuka could sense this, but she still had other things to do, so she sighed, walked to Pegasus, raised her hand and knocked on his leg armor, motioning him to follow.

"These things are indeed what Fulgrim used back then - they are not replicas made by the Mechanicus later or spare parts left over from the past, but very accurate psychic replicas." Fujimaru Ritsuka finally walked out of the control room door and began to trot forward with the water mirror magic communication station in the summoning room as his target. "The advantage of psychic replicas is that they are indeed accurate to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing, but the disadvantage is that they are not real things after all - especially equipment with original owners. When the aether weaves the shape of the equipment, it also copies its history, so they may carry a bit of the original owner's personality. For this problem, the time node I chose was very early, long before Fulgrim developed a tendency to degenerate, but if you still feel that the equipment on your body is not so obedient, it is also normal."

That wasn't what Pegasus was worried about - in fact, he hadn't found any problems with his equipment being unresponsive. But considering that it wasn't easy to find equipment that could fit the Primarch (even a clone), and that he was going to have to fight soon, Pegasus thought it was a bit hypocritical to continue to worry about not wanting to look too much like Fulgrim.

So he walked slowly beside Fujimaru Ritsuka and answered vaguely: "I'm not sure. This may require some tests, but I'm afraid we won't have time. What are the arrangements next?"

"Contact Hera Fortress to see what the situation is on the ground and what kind of support we can get." Fujimaru Ritsuka replied, "But no matter what, the only ones who can come up with a solution and successfully demolish this great temple are us."
-
Linsenus' efforts and sacrifices were not in vain. Santo thought so while re-adjusting the spirit particle transmission communication device.

Although he did think that if this thing broke, he could always rebuild it, but considering the limited efficiency, he did not have the ability to "always" use this equipment immediately after it was smashed. Therefore, Santo had to admit that Linsenus' choice to protect this facility when it was attacked was indeed a foresighted act.

He didn't want to consider whether the invading Dark Eldar knew what the device was, whether they were interested in it, or whether they thought it should be treated as a target that needed to be destroyed. In short, the result of the whole thing was that Linsinus and his team guarded the door of this room until the last breath, and the enemy did not cause any damage to the device, so it can be defined as: Brother Linsinus's efforts and sacrifices were not in vain.

Thinking this way wouldn't lead to anything concrete, but it would make Santo feel better.

This time, the psychic standing next to Santo and debugging the communication device with him was the director of the Ultramarines' think tank and Linsinus's immediate superior. Varo Diglis not only represented the Ultramarines Primarch, Robert Guilliman, but he also had a lot of questions that needed to be answered. However, Diglis also knew the priorities: compared to the seemingly harmless short-term issue of why Macragge suddenly turned over and covered all the defenders with a layer of protection, it was of course more important that the Imperial Saint did not suddenly die again.

He had understood this simple truth from the battle of Parmenio: if the saint was still alive, there would always be miracles. But if the saint was gone, there would really be nothing.

Unfortunately, he had no say in this matter. The legs were on Fujimaru Ritsuka himself, and Gabriel Santo next to him obviously would not speak for Digris. The think tank director could only provide as much support as possible throughout his county, in case the saint suddenly realized that he could not come back while running - even if Fujimaru Ritsuka himself did not say it, Digris would ensure that a transport plane team with an escort fighter formation was on standby at any time, so as to find the right opportunity to pull her and her boat out of the "Glorious Composite Grand Temple" floating in the air.

Fortunately, Fujimaru Ritsuka obviously knew what she was doing - probably. At least, after the communication was connected, she first said that the Storm Edge was temporarily paralyzed, and there was anti-aircraft firepower in the temple's barrier. She might be able to find a way to solve some of the problems, but the final evacuation operation still had to rely on the support of the Ultramarines.

Diglis nodded and thought it was good. At least, when the situation was bad, Fujimaru Ritsuka could smoothly lower himself and ask for help. He could speak up without delay and give the friendly forces enough time to prepare. Unlike some...

The think tank director urgently gathered his thoughts and focused on the present. Beside him, Santo was asking if a long-range artillery attack on the Grand Temple of Glory could weaken the temple's barrier like overloading the void shield. Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, indicating that it was possible, but considering that Perturabo's army was still in orbit and Macragge still needed to regain air superiority from the Iron Warriors, it would be more reasonable to give all these anti-aircraft firepower to the Imperial Regent who could see the overall situation.

"Besides, the efficiency of doing so is not very high." Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, "The reason why the Radiant Grand Temple is difficult to capture is because it has a logical deadlock: as long as Ozymandias, the master and core of the temple, still exists and there is a constant supply of ether, the temple itself can quickly repair itself even if it is damaged; and Ozymandias, the master and core of the temple, is inside the temple, under the symbol of the pyramid's 'eternal life' hope, so he is immortal."

"'Undead'." Diglis did not quite understand this term, which was too broad in his concept. "Most creatures in the Warp cannot be truly killed with ordinary swords, but they will at least retreat from reality."

"That's not the case..." Fujimaru Ritsuka paused, a little hesitant, but finally made up his mind and spoke: "Let me give you an example: the first time I met Ozymandias was also in his temple. While we were talking, his head just slipped off his neck."

"..."

"……Then what?"

"Then I pretended not to see it, and he pushed his head back, and the conversation continued. It's basically this form of 'immortality'." Fujimaru Ritsuka curled his eyes, looking like he didn't want to talk about this matter. "Although I haven't tried more radical methods before, in this case, the symbol of magic must be solved by magic. I will be responsible for finding a way to untie this knot."

(End of this chapter)