Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 459: Facing the enemy, looking for a way to survive (4K5)
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Unlike Uriel, Pausanius, who was left in the upper level of this cave of creatures and steel, was apparently treated much better.

Apparently, because the Iron Warrior wizard lord here required him to "stay alive" and "answer a series of questions", they had no intention of sending Pausanius to the lower level at the beginning, and soon woke him up again.

But this twisted and corrupt group of Mechanicus followers became divided over Pasanius (the arm).

So now the sergeant was watching this group of strange-looking combinations of flesh and metal limbs, including insects, reptiles and aquatic creatures, quarreling there, while secretly starting to move his arms - it sounded like the focus of the argument among this group of people was that some people believed that they needed to tie him up first to study the connection between the flesh and the machine before cutting it off, while the other group believed that they should remove his mechanical arm first, and while studying his mechanical arm, they would then hang the sergeant on the dissecting bed and give him a good beating.

Oh, the throne! Those bloody evidences left on the dissection table! Pasanius swore that the skeletons and cuts of meat they had just dragged away from that bloody hellhole before he came here could never, could never, could never be some kind of Grox beast - ugh! These disgusting traitors! In the name of the Emperor and Guilliman! He wished he could burn all the evil here!
But before that, the blond sergeant had to get himself out and find a way to find his company commander.

He still remembered what the priest at the armory who installed his arm told him? Remember, this is a gift made with the blessing of our Lord. It can only be used once at a critical moment. It is best not to stay at the scene of use, otherwise... Tsk, what are you still worrying about at this moment... The steps for using it are...

Pasanius concentrated for a moment on recalling the strange initiation prayer that the priest had taught him and recited it silently again to avoid any mistakes.

Then he began to use his thumb to press the sides of the base of his middle and ring fingers in the order of...↓←↓→, and finally... the disk that popped out would say... "This side faces the enemy." So, the side with the words should face the enemy immediately? Although I don't know why I emphasize this, it's always right to use the weapon according to the manufacturer's instructions... right?

While Pasanius prayed devoutly to the God-Emperor and his Primarch (even though the worried faces of the priest brother Julius when he parted with them inadvertently appeared in front of him because of this prosthesis), he tried to turn the glowing disc that slowly emerged from the palm of the mechanical prosthesis towards the two gangs of brutal funeral mechanics who were still arguing beside his dissection bed.

The rosary around his neck also began to heat up slightly, but Pasanius, who was completely focused on something else, did not notice it.

At this moment, the leader suddenly screamed, and raised his upper body like a giant venomous snake that was suddenly disturbed, with his sharp claws pointing in the direction of Pausanius, "Oh——"

“Bang! Snap! Whoosh!”

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When Uriel, wearing a pullover made of bloody human skin - Uriel finally made it from the human skin bag they escaped from, and fastened it with an iron chain as a belt, which was better than running around here with his whole body exposed - and Samokan, armed with the stolen weapons and killing several guards, rushed to this floor, Pasanius happened to be struggling with the last two steel cables that tied him up.

“Uriel!” Although Ventress was covered in blood and mucus, and the light here was very dim, Pasanius recognized him immediately. A relieved and sincere smile immediately appeared on the sergeant’s face. “Great! You escaped before me! That’s great! My prayer worked! Come and help me! I don’t want to die here after killing them because of such a stupid thing as not being able to break free! - What is that?! What kind of monster is that behind you?!”

Samokan withdrew his hand in grievance and stopped, while an inexplicable anger surged into his heart, immediately breaking the strange calmness and coldness that had just surged into his soul when he received orders and fought.

"Hey! You big fool! We shouldn't have come to rescue you! You don't even look like you need us to rescue you!"

"What, you monster, how dare you... Wait, Samokan?! Samokan?! In the throne! What crimes have they committed against you!" Pasanius, who was about to yell and try to shake off the boy's arms that were stretched out to untie his restraints, opened his eyes wide, and Uriel silently cut the steel cables that bound him with the blade in his hand.

"Humph! I am a monster!" Tears welled up in his gray eyes again and flowed down, "I'm not Samokan! I'm a monster!"

"Ah... This, this is not what I meant, Samokan, kid..." The sergeant jumped off the dissecting bed and tried to comfort the other party in a panic.

Uriel sighed and began to search for their own power armor and weapons in the large basket next to the autopsy bed that collected the remains of the unfortunate victims who had been lying here before. He first found his own power sword, and then found Pasanius' flamethrower.

"Here...why is your promethium bottle still full? I remember you used it many times. Did you replace it? No one should come here for a while. Let's hurry up and put on as much armor as possible. I checked it out...Samokwan should only be missing the black shell and skin now. Pausanius."

Pasanius took his beloved flamethrower and looked at the measurement of the promethium bottle in confusion: it was indeed full, but the content of Uriel's last sentence made him open his blue eyes wide, shocked by the meaning of it, "What do you mean? Samokhan? Space Marine? But? How long has it been? Even if his physique is qualified, it's not even a standard Terran day in such a short time! And complete the other eighteen operations on him? This is absolutely impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible, Pausanius. I saw something down there and a demon... and experienced how these blasphemous creations can turn mortal children into warriors of Chaos in such a short time. Remember when we were imprisoned in the cells under the Hera Fortress, Master Tigris sent someone to tell us the content of the death oath we needed to perform?"

"Oh. Yes." Pasanius murmured and nodded, "If that's the case... indeed... yes." A flame of fighting spirit ignited in his eyes, "Should we destroy this place?"

"That's for sure. But first don't forget what Soltarn will be launching here soon."

"…Shit, I remember it clearly. You're right, it's hard to say how much ground there will be left after the missile swarms are launched. So what do we do next?"

"Escape first. Soltan and his men are outside the fortress. It won't be difficult to find their army. Our current situation... we have too few people. We need to meet up with them and return here with more men. I have memorized this place and the terrain. It is not appropriate to stay here after Soltan's attack begins. We must regroup and return here in the subsequent attacks to completely destroy it."

"I'll listen to you." Pasanius nodded, his hand soothing Samokwan's back - although it was obvious that touching the skin that didn't know who originally belonged to him gave the sergeant's intact arm goose bumps, he still tried his best. "Hey, look, now you are only two operations away from being a recruit. When we go back, maybe you can get what you want - you must be able to hold our special grenade launcher now, right?"

"Yes... but can we leave here alive?" Samokan seemed depressed again. He did not avoid Pausanius's comfort, but he also looked desolate and lonely. "I can be cured... I mean, I'm not a monster, I just need treatment, right? Soltarn and you won't think I'm a monster. Other people won't think I'm a monster either... I'm still a human, right?"

"Yes. That is right." Uriel replied in a very firm tone, "You are a human, a person cherished by the Emperor. Samokhan."

In his hands he held a pile of blue broken armor pieces, some of which were fragments of tactical dreadnought armor painted blue. They were easy to recognize; they could only be the power armor custom-made for Pasanius.

"Now, there is no time. Come quickly, Pasanius and I need to put on armor immediately. I will also teach you how to tie these armor plates that I just picked out for you in good condition to vital parts as much as possible. Although they come from the corpses of those iron warriors, they are better than nothing." So after a while, in this quiet place full of thick black ash and dull and decayed metal powder, they struggled to arm themselves as much as possible, and then prepared to set off, exploring along the sides deep in the cave to see if they could find a quick passage to leave here.

"Because the lower level here is obviously a laboratory and a cultivation farm. Along the way, I saw a large number of dissection tables, slaughter racks and operating tables. There were many signs of flushing, but I didn't see a particularly large number of... bone remains. In order to maintain... those farms below, they obviously dug waterways for sewage discharge. In addition, this fortress is already old. Most of these classical fortresses must have gates to discharge dirt and sewage. As long as we can find that water gate, which is definitely not too small, we should be able to find a way to get out of the fortress. So we have to follow these drainage pipes next to them. They can only discharge to the outside..."

While carefully forming a formation of three and moving forward, Uriel lowered his voice to explain his next plan of action to the other two.

"What if the owner of this place is unreasonable and wants to discharge waste into the crater for direct burning? That makes sense, right?" Samokan interrupted. This boy, who had recently acquired a huge and strong body, sometimes showed a few seconds of discomfort with his new body shape, such as subconsciously taking a few more steps to keep up with the other two - so he would step too far forward and have to readjust to the formation.

"Then we can only pray to the Emperor and Father that the lord here who does look very particular does not have the awareness to burn garbage."

"Oh. Then I will... pray to the Emperor, Soltarn's father, and your father at the same time. Perhaps praying will be more helpful if there are more people."

"Do not be so frivolous with the Emperor of Mankind, Samokan. He knows everything, and He is watching you. (The Emperor knows, the Emperor is watching.)"

"Then He should be able to hear my prayers now and show me some signs that He has heard them? Even if He punishes me, I will accept it. Really, this will make me feel more at ease."

"..."

Finally, Uriel broke the silence. "Samokan, the three of us are now able to escape from this place unscathed and start looking for an escape route. This is the Emperor's tacit consent."

The boy thought for a moment, blinking his nonexistent eyelids with red muscle bundles and tendons. "You have a point. Maybe. But I will still pray for all of them."

They advanced cautiously in silence, carefully turning through several damp, dripping caves filled with cages and experimental subjects but with no one working. Only the groans and screams of the dying or barely breathing victims of various bizarre and horrific surgical experiments echoed ominously between the stalactites in the air.

But in the composition of these sounds, all three of them heard a sound of rushing water that was getting louder and louder.

The water vapor and complex stench formed by fresh blood and rotten blood gradually became more obvious.

"Why are there so few people on duty here? I feel like the several operating tables we just passed by were originally being used...disgustingly." Samokan suddenly said, "I'm not saying that the small number of these lunatics is a bad thing, but I'm curious."

"It's good to be curious at this moment. But I don't know the answer to this question. Perhaps, Pausanius? By the way, can you explain to us what happened to you just now?"

"There are few people here because they just gathered at my place." The big sergeant said, holding his beloved flamethrower and looking around vigilantly, "Judging from the number of main operating tables I saw along the way, most of these strange creatures should have gathered at my place just now. They are discussing whether to chop me and my arm into pieces first, or chop me and my arm into pieces and then let me continue to live, I guess."

Samokan shrank his neck. "What happened after that? When we rushed into your operating room, you were still on the operating table. What happened to the thick dust and rotten debris on the floor?"

"Well..." Pasanius scratched his short hair that had grown a little long. "To put it simply, a one-time destructive weapon was installed in my mechanical body, and I used it with the determination to die."

"What?" Uriel turned to look at Pasanius. "You never told me."

"I didn't think I'd need it." The sergeant shrugged. "Anyway... it works, Guang."

"Light?" As they walked down a slope again and turned out of a tunnel, a huge space that was excavated from the cave at the bottom of the mountain appeared in front of them: a large and complex network of pipes and drainage channels of various sizes emerged from above and around every corner, forming large and small smelly, black and red waterfalls and streams. The garbage, dirt, remains of corpses and tissues from all processes of human birth to death produced by the entire fortress poured out from it and finally gathered into a huge sewage pool. They saw that at the other end of the sewage pool, there was indeed a large gate, just as Uriel had expected.

"Yes, light. Golden red, or green-gold, or white-gold, it's hard to say, but I think it's the color of the sun... It only lasted for a moment, and everything in the entire fan shape in that direction disappeared."

"Gone?"

"Literally, it's gone, reduced to ashes. Didn't you notice how empty the place was when you came in?"

"Indeed." They used the shadows and pipes at the edge of the pool to carefully cover their bodies, crouching in place and observing the movements of the patrolling guards in the distance.

"So those on the ground are..."

"That was all they had left, and they didn't even have time to sound the alarm."

Samokan nodded. "It's a good thing for them. They are the lucky ones to be burned."

(End of this chapter)