Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 652: Dantioch's Memories and the Miracle of Olympia
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Like a towering, silent iron fortress, the two Iron Warriors stood behind the mortal chronicler of the Space Wolves, and were ordered to watch over him.

The helmets they wore at their father's request concealed their faces.

This was just as well, as it helped Dantioch hide the various expressions that kept appearing on his face.

Including covering up the momentary distraction he would occasionally stare at the slightly curly mane, perfect long snout, plump white oval pads of the animal that was the incarnation of the Space Wolf Primarch... If we go too far, it can also cover up the glances he secretly took at his colleagues beside him.

The Iron Warrior beside him was wearing a Mark IV battle armor that had been modified in countless ways - this was the most popular new model at the moment (he thought with only a hint of sourness) - a pretentious double-winged structure between a psychic crystal hood and a personal defense field generator rose from the area between his neck armor and backpack. Apart from that, his paint plating was ordinary, and the battle medals and other things that the Iron Warriors were recently encouraged to add to themselves were not seen much on him.

All in all, if that structure was interpreted as a personal defense stance (only a few Iron Warriors could use it, as they hardly ever got such relatively advanced supplies), he would be able to blend in with the vast majority of the legionnaires like a colleague. Even with Thortann's calm and indifferent temperament, Dantioch suspected that he would not be discovered immediately even if he infiltrated other legions.

Soltarn vo Bron.

This man, who had previously been of little reputation in the legion, mysteriously disappeared when no one was paying attention and was specially trained by the Primarch, so that he only now discovered that in his legion, which did not even have an editor (the most basic think tank Lexicanium), such a battle brother with supernatural powers who could punch and kick anyone had quietly emerged - he was now like a mystery that was completely impossible to see through and understand to Barabas Dantioch.

But isn’t the Primarch, the Iron Lord, and the Lord of the Fourth Legion a bigger and more difficult mystery to him, the current Warsmith and one of the Tridents?

Even though he and his Primarch had been working together on Olympia - Dantioch still felt a warmth coursing through both of his hearts as he had when he first heard the word the Primarch had inadvertently used to describe their work and relationship - for a year, and had witnessed together some perhaps less loyal (but no longer important) and definitely great miracles that Dantioch had never imagined before, even as a warsmith commanding an entire expeditionary fleet, being born again and again on his home world.

But when Dantioch thinks back on what happened, it still feels like a dream.

The giant dams, power stations, airport infrastructure, rail facilities, new farms and factories built within six days, the ships that were miraculously renovated and repaired in the docks, the high-speed bridges that spanned the rivers of the Olympian Mountains like a rainbow of steel and ivory, the tunnels that were ingeniously drilled between the revered mountains to make the routes efficient and safe, the capillary-like roads and energy grids that connected the entire planet and even the most remote shepherd's home...

On the first morning, many people in Olympia were still living in the idyllic countryside of a medieval city-state. The fear of their future, the wrath of the tax collectors of their city-state tyrants, and the hungry work constituted the beginning of their new day. Most of them had no idea that the nobles and tyrants above them had all been replaced the day before.

On the seventh day, these original villagers and shepherds already knew that the giant steel birds that landed in front of them were not the mounts or messengers of some gods, but the vehicles ridden by the heralds and priestesses of the King of Steel.

But these demigod-like people did bring them eternal lights to illuminate the night, some basic supplies, and new laws that stipulated that all of them had to rest on the seventh day. At the same time, as residents of the Iron Warriors' home planet, they did not only have the obligation to pay the blood tax by blindly dedicating all their boys, they also had the same welfare and convenience that residents of the Legion and the Primarch's home planet should enjoy, including all the discoveries of the Great Crusade and the scientific research level of the Primarch.

Moreover, this was declared equally to every one of them, whether they were former nobles, citizens, helots, or slaves.

The starting point for the Lord of Steel to construct the temporary code was simple, plain and fair, a blessing that one can get as much in return as one has paid in the past.

For example, Dantioch. According to the fragments he remembered, he was the youngest son of a shepherd in a mountain town outside the city-state of Rochos. His older brothers were not conscripted because they were too old, but he had served the King of Steel for nearly a century, which might have no meaning for his own inheritance that could not even be called a family.

It was not until he unexpectedly received a rough little package with a little bit of coal dust from the shepherd's fire pit that he realized that the King of Steel's strict requirement for heralds to go to every inhabited place to deliver the latest news and decrees was indeed meaningful.

Inside the package was an old hand-spun wool shawl, dyed with the sap of primroses that were everywhere in Olympia, and a dictated letter written by a local priestess, saying that this was an item kept by his brother's daughter and a legacy from his mother. She never used it until the end. In her story, she kept telling her niece that this was a gift for her little son who might come back to visit.

Barabas Dantioch still remembers how he felt when he stroked the little shawl that his mother had woven for him after he left but didn't know where it was sent. He became more determined to follow the King of Steel forever, even if he was torn to pieces and fell into hell.

Now, the surviving families of those lucky ones who were drafted in the last twenty years and survived can apply to send approved letters and packages to their uncles, grandfathers, uncles, brothers or sons who are currently serving, and can also apply to visit the mysterious Astartes battleship after this big break.

Many people - war blacksmiths, company commanders or veterans were not optimistic about the Primarch's move, believing that this approach would make the already precarious conscription operation even worse - when they returned to their families and found that life had become so colorful and their future life was becoming rich, who would choose to join the arduous expedition and the bloody battle with the aliens?

Many people even pessimistically believe that the legionnaires who were sent back to their hometowns to help with the first few harvest seasons or work as technicians in factories are likely to become deserters in large numbers.

Therefore, although the starting point is kindness under madness, it is a commendable act anyway, but in the end, on the two matters of conscription and recalling active soldiers, the Father of Genes will find that the opinions of the noble officials will be confirmed. This group of illiterate country bumpkins and sheep farmers cannot understand any big principles, nor will they understand how precious it is to dedicate their children to the Lord of Steel. Honor.

He would still have to show his tyrannical side, reuse and rely on the old armies and tax collectors of the nobles, take away the children from his people again, and use the public execution of eleven lashes to make an example of others, to catch and scare those deserters who were unwilling to return to fight. But the Primarch seemed to have no fear of such events that those concerned about state affairs warned him would happen. After personally planning and supervising the location of the vegetable "greenhouses", hydroponic farms, collective cafeterias and new simulated combat training halls and other facilities that had almost nothing to do with combat on all the ships in the fleet he brought back (the speed of construction of these things was also one of the miracles of the sixth day), he happily (crazily) announced to all of Olympia that the warship open day would accept registration from anyone who met the review requirements, especially students in schools and children in factories who could get additional group visit days.

On the first open day, the streets were packed with visitors, from teenagers wearing rough linen and felt to aristocratic students wearing exquisite gold jewelry, from illiterate country old women to philosophers and scholars equipped with bionic machines. They were carried into the sky by Stormbirds and flew over the sea of ​​stars. They shouted in amazement in the battleships and followed the guidance of the warrior poets to visit these magnificent war masterpieces that had seen the steel warriors fight bloody battles in the universe for countless years.

Then, when the fleet that was about to set off for Nikaea sent out a call for the conscription and assembly of the legions to all of Olympia through the established communication network—

Not a single legionnaire deserted as the old nobility and bureaucrats had predicted.

The Iron Warriors raised their heads from the fields and factory machines, listened carefully to the call, then methodically packed up their tools and handed them over to their mortal colleagues or apprentices. Finally, they took off their soft clothes and helped each other put on their ceramic steel armor again.

They returned to the assembly point early, and stood neatly according to their squads and companies with weapons in hand. Their power armor and weapon machine spirits hummed with joy and eagerness for battle - each piece of equipment had been wiped countless times by the hands of their wearers who were full of expectation and hope for the Iron Lord to bless them, keeping them bright and clean. This effect was assessed to far outweigh the uncertainty of consecration and prayer - as for performing the so-called blessing ceremony of the Mechanicus for the equipment, this matter had been handed over to the local priests of Olympia.

It turns out that as long as the correctly numbered censer is lit, the inscriptions and lighting procedures are correct, and the correct mechanical incense is used, the effect of this ritual on repairing weapons and equipment is exactly the same in the hands of Olympian priests as in the hands of Mechanicus priests.

It is said that when many senior and outstanding Iron Warriors officers heard about this, they were half relieved, half sighed, and recited the Iron Litany. The war chess exercises and simulation training in the Masonic Hall began to build campaigns more around how to seize several nearby Forge Worlds or using the Mechanicus as the imaginary enemy.

What was even more unexpected was that after the global assembly order was issued, all the smartest, strongest children who had reached conscription age that year showed up at the assembly point for preliminary screening by the legion's pharmacy department. There were even some older teenagers who appeared in the team - they had been hidden in caves or other places by their relatives a year ago.

The boys, many of whom had visited warships and some of whom had worked for a time as farm hands or factory assistants for the Legionnaires, were nervous but not afraid.

The Iron Warriors who were called back were also standing in the ranks, watching these young men who came to enlist.

According to the training they received in school, they automatically lined up in neat rows, nervously but bravely stepped forward one by one to enter the medical compartment converted from a Stormbird, and accepted the gentle, meticulous, patient and persuasive ("Whoever lets me know that he still uses the same tricks to scare the children to tears during the conscription test, I will let him stay on the ground this time to be responsible for the postpartum care of all Olympian ewes.") genetic adaptation screening and physical examination procedures. Those who pass the test will take part in more new tests in the future to decide whether they should start preparing to join the legion now, or join the Seleucid Breastplate Corps in a few years, or serve in the newly established Planetary Defense Force after Olympia truly had a unified government for the first time.

This time, all the children who participated in the conscription voluntarily agreed to do so.

Unlike the miserable scenes in the past when every time a child was taken away, the lucky ones left behind would shed tears, feel resentful, or sigh, this time the boys selected for the second round of exams all looked very proud, they held their heads high and looked down upon their peers, and their families waiting outside the assembly point would cheer for them and take them back to celebrate their selection for the draft and prepare for the next round of exams.

In the eyes of those who knew what the Legion had actually become before the Primarch returned to the home planet this time, and how tense the actual situation in Olympia was - such as Dantioch and his lieutenants.

This is a miracle.

This is a miracle for the people of Olympia. It is also a miracle brought down by the Lord of Steel, who ended all the old systems in Olympia since the Old Night Era with the fleet and soldiers he brought, abolished the distinctions between the city-states, and firmly linked them together with more, faster, and safer means of transportation and communication.

With such a dream-like miracle as the foundation, when Dantioch later witnessed everything that had happened since the Primarch walked out until now, all the doubts in his heart would automatically give way to and defend the Primarch's existence.

—But when he found himself looking for the sixteenth time at the black and white Leman Russ dueling with his scion on the field, worried and nervous, and —

When the black and white sheepdog where the wolf king lived howled in triumph to the sky, causing the wolf pack to resonate, Dantioch was horrified to find that deep in his heart he also had the urge to cheer.

——What kind of psychic influence did the Wolf King exert on the people around him? !

——Could it be that my loyalty to my father is still so strong that it can be shaken? !
Barabas Dantiochus, unbeknownst to anyone, fell into deep self-doubt and self-criticism.

(End of this chapter)