Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 819 is not what I wanted, so I refused directly.
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"...Is Hong Suo alright?"

In the Chief of Staff's office on the Destiny Steel, Ramizan and Peturabo were together—or rather, Peturabo BC was handling business while simultaneously using one eye to watch the ship's CCTV along with his own body.

Yes, it's CCTV, Closed Circuit Television. But it's definitely more convenient to write CCTV in any language, so now everyone calls it CCTV.

In short, after frantically trying to contact the Ironblood and finally being relieved to learn that the reliable Peturabo in the lab had arranged for someone to take over this cute but hot potato, Ramizane found himself exhausted and desperately wanted to go back to his office to pet the dog, relax, and have some coffee.

So he immediately set off back to his office.

Along the way, the Ironblood, which was already sparsely populated due to the front-line battle, now seemed particularly deserted and unsettling. Fortunately, the lights were bright everywhere and the ground was clean. When he passed the intersection leading to the canteen, he could smell the faint aroma of food being cooked, which was as comforting as the kitchen of your neighbor's house that you pass by on your way home from school or get off work.

Ramizane only felt slightly relieved when he arrived at the Warchief's office and saw the majestic black and white plush tyrant already in his faithful, fearless office chair, working.

As for having to make his own coffee since the entire Honor Guard has been deployed, that's not a big deal. Who in the 3K hasn't made their own coffee before?
At this point, the induction cooker kit that Desimah had modified from the mech reactor while complaining about "why can't we install some anti-gravity engines, gyroscopes, and bomb racks on it" came in handy!

Clever as I am! Rami proudly poured the latest portable coconut-flavored Reca coffee liquid developed by the officers' mess hall into a cup, added warm artificial milk—Grox's animal milk was still a bit fishy, ​​but it was much better after processing!
The first phase of the artificial beach project in Pearl Moon has finally been completed, and the coconut planting pilot project has also been launched... He smelled the coconut fragrance that filled the office with satisfaction. It would be a waste of resources and an underutilization of resources to not plant coconuts on an ocean planet with an average annual temperature of 35°C and only raise fish because there is little land!
As for the snacks to accompany coffee while working—Lamizann naturally picked up the telephone installed on his desk (we should have had internal and red telephones long ago! I can't believe that such a large naval force has never had one! This was the shocked statement of a certain librarian when he finally remembered this) and dialed the cafeteria's extension number.

Soon, the officers' mess hall responded: Although they were short-handed due to their busy work baking enough military rations to supply the front lines and the munitions factories in the Wandering Port, the Ironblood's automation level was quite good, so they could still spare some time to make some snacks for the chapter commanders and governors.

The egg, dried ham, cheese, and arugula sandwiches and coconut-flavored desserts will be ready soon, but they can't leave and will probably have to pick them up themselves, or—the patrol's mechs could deliver them, but considering the distance, they'd actually have to wait longer.

When someone makes snacks for you, it's not a problem to walk a few steps to pick them up yourself. After receiving a satisfactory answer, the person put down the phone and just waited for the cafeteria to notify them that the snacks were ready before heading over.

Of course, it would be even better if someone could bring it for them on their way.

In fact, someone did bring them these snacks for working overtime when they came along that route.

"Hasn't Terra been quite turbulent lately? The High Lords are making foolish mistakes again, and what about Guilliman's expedition and pilgrimage? He's been incredibly busy distributing Primalforged gift packs everywhere, but he still has to go. Aren't you going to wait until then to go back? Aren't you going to deal with the problems on the moon?"

As the demonic border collie spoke, its brows furrowed, and it unleashed a barrage of ten claw strikes, producing a continuous, crackling sound like popping beans.

"I have arranged everything!" the pigeon wearing a golden laurel wreath cooed, perching smugly on the perch that originally belonged to a large corvid, one claw clutching half a sandwich. It was the pigeon that had just returned from the chapel that used its psionic energy to float the snack plate into the office.

"Macado will be secretly monitoring the situation! Absolutely no mistakes!"

"...When you say it's foolproof, it sounds like a blue-feathered bird guaranteeing a 100% success rate."

"Hey!" the pigeon cooed in discontent. "I'm no longer the one on the throne! Don't you understand?!"

“That’s not true. You’re far more uncontrollable than him—in some ways. Didn’t Makado abandon you when he first sat on the throne and saw the true nature of things and the future? How did you convince him to come back to you, be deceived, and become your slave?”

“But at least I won’t choose ALL!” the pigeon said angrily. “What do you mean by being deceived! My prime minister did it voluntarily! I just told him that we should meet one more time for the sake of our past friendship, and then we would go our separate ways…”

"Alright, this time I won't roast you into a stuffed pigeon—at least you didn't hide your favoritism when you planned to give Horus a relatively happy index. Oh, unfortunate old Macardo, I see, you took the opportunity to use the old trick on him again. How come he always falls for it? Tsk, why don't I have someone as useful as him to keep an eye on the pit?"

Peturabo BC said sourly, "By the way, I recorded all of the above!"

"Hey!" The pigeon was clearly a little flustered.

“I reserve the right for others to see these recordings! Old man! I know that Horus’s reforms left behind ten thousand years ago as Qile have given you some progress! It’s not time for you to get cocky yet.”

“Ah, speaking of video footage,” Ramizam asked, having already reviewed all the CCTV footage.

"Is Hong Suo really alright?"

He pointed to a view of a boarding passageway leading to the medical room.

For some reason, the light in this image appears redder than the surrounding area, like a monitor screen with a problem with its color temperature.

"...Why don't you zoom in a bit?"

The alchemist in the picture clearly does have some issues.

His battle axe wasn't as well concealed behind his backpack as it had been during his recent duties; in fact, it seemed to be dripping thick, undried blood with every step he took. Hanging from his other side was the head of a surprisingly large and grotesque creature. Thanks to the Alchemist's specially designed powerful power backpack, the power armor's servers maintained Honsuo's center of gravity and stability, but the thing looked incredibly sinister no matter how you looked at it.

"It's... indescribable... brain flower."

Ramizam finally sighed.

"I thought only the Tyrannosaurus Rex would grow such a disproportionately large brain flower."

“There have indeed been recent reports of extremely well-developed brain variants among gene stealers, but before that, no one had seen many, or rather, not many reports of people seeing them alive.” The dog snorted, and the pigeon tossed the leftover sandwich back onto the plate and flew over.

"Clearly, the Empire hasn't gained any advantage in resisting the several Zerg hive fleets; even something like this has appeared. —What was the point of scattering all that gold corn?!"

The pigeon cooed in dissatisfaction, “They have their own missions and cannot be generalized. Besides, some of the Imperial Guards may have received their missions even more than several or even dozens of centuries ago. The situation back then is completely different from the present.”

Peturabo snorted, but didn't object to the second half of the sentence, "For example, what kind of mission? Tell me."

"Uh, what exactly is this thing?" Ramizam was still observing the seemingly red glowing Honso. "If I'm not mistaken, isn't there a face at the very bottom of its head that looks like a human...?!"

Lamizane looked very closely, and both the dog and the pigeon saw the second face on the skull in the shadows—a very inconspicuous human face, which could even be described as handsome. Its human features were significantly more prominent than the other, ferocious chieftain's face above.

"How rare, a super-powered mutated Benifectus... No wonder both the Flesh Tearer and Honso fell victim to its attack."

"What?"

"Benifectus, or rather, the Holy Blesser, is a new type of mutant insect from the Genestealer Cult, cultivated by their breeders through genetic engineering. However, their physical bodies are not usually this strong. This head is a fusion of the patriarch and the Holy Blesser, probably an experiment that simultaneously enhances both the body and the mind."

The Border Collie clicked its tongue.

"However, Honso's will is so weak. After being hit by this kind of psionic shock, which is mostly hallucinatory, his mind was invaded by that big red bodybuilder. Even after returning to the Ironblood, he is still like this. We should hang him on the ram and let him be exposed to the solar wind to clear his head."

“That’s not quite right, Peturabo.” The pigeon flapped its wings and puffed out its chest, displaying an air of wise guidance. “Before criticizing your offspring, didn’t you realize that this gene-stealer has also become a test subject for the red behemoth?”

"Hmm?" The dog finally slowed down its work, leaned closer to zoom in and observe Hongsuo and his spoils, who were almost at the laboratory door.

“I remember your Ironblood has an automatic defense system and alarms,” Pigeon transmitted with experience. “If Hong Suozhen was judged to be biased towards that red kobold, he wouldn’t have been able to walk in so easily and reach the door of the infirmary.”

“In other words…” Peturabo BC stared at the person in the image. The apothecary master seemed to be breathing heavily with extreme exhaustion, and each step he took was like that of a lost traveler walking in an endless desert.

But he still walked to the door of his laboratory, slowly raised his hand, slowly entered the password, and prepared to pass the verification.

They stared at the verification door lock of the medical laboratory, which flashed with a dangerous light as it scanned the Pharmacist. It scanned several times more than usual, clearly undecided, but ultimately allowed Hong Suo into the medical room.

“Interesting… He’s resisting some kind of psionic invasion? And even has the upper hand so far? But logically, the Ironblood’s psionic defense system should have countermeasures, purification, or alarm measures against all known invasion methods, but he hasn’t triggered any alarms.”

The demon border collie's tail curled into a large, fluffy ball. "If it had been deemed irreversible or too dangerous, its head should have been eaten by the vortex bomb built into the scanner just now."

"I told you he was very resilient, after all, he is Luo..."

Ramizam suddenly coughed loudly.

"He is, after all, the chief potion master of our Iron Warriors! Now, who can tell me what exactly happened and how we should help him?!"

The black and white plush tyrant grinned, revealing his furry mouth.

--------

Say it.

Say those words.

"What is there to say? I am Hong Suo, that's all."

He muttered to himself. Sweat streamed down his forehead.

Why didn't Parogov wipe his sweat?

Oh, this isn't an experiment right now.

But the light was too red, and he frowned, worried that it would affect certain precision experiments.

By the way, he had previously acquired a batch of genetic seed reserves.

Whose was it again?

In short, it was important that he return to the lab as soon as possible to resume his work. A distant voice within him told him this. It was important.

"Blood is of great significance to you. After all, if your genetic seed is half Soraka and half Kasander, then where did your body come from? Seeds can only be implanted, not grown out of thin air. Go find the blood, and the blood will give you the answer."

“I am Hong Suo, and I am who I am. I will avenge the past. I will act for the future. But I am in the present. I decide my own plans.”

Hong Su frowned, finding the sound annoying.

The red light grew stronger, casting a heavy shadow on his power armor and behind him. He brushed them aside and saw the familiar door lock identification device. He entered the password, but the door wouldn't open.

Is it because the security level has increased, requiring facial and biometric recognition?

He removed one gauntlet, locked it to his waist, then placed the hand into the sample collector while simultaneously resting his head on the designated shelf of the scanner.

The lock took a little too long to unlock.

His anger surged again like a tidal wave behind his skull.

There might be some living creature causing trouble behind this... a living thing... blood...

"Yes, yes, blood. For whom is the blood shed?"

"..."

A desire to bleed engulf him again; he longed to cut off heads, to let arterial blood gush out, to drink it like a spring, to ignite more anger, more blood.

“This isn’t the blood I want…” Hunsso murmured, “It’s meaningless…”

"...Perhaps, by donating blood, you can find out the whereabouts of the person you want to know."

The voice used a different phrasing, which sounded somewhat unfamiliar.

"Offer enough blood and skulls...recite that phrase...and you will see the person you have been searching for...uh."

The voice seemed to choke for a moment when the image of Parogov's young face appeared before Hunso's eyes.

At that moment, the laboratory door suddenly opened.

This distracted Hong Suo's attention and thoughts for 0.1 seconds.

A brilliant red light shone forth, heading straight for his momentary distraction.

A strange force struck him from behind, knocking him to the ground.

Then a hammer crackling with lightning struck down hard.

(End of this chapter)