Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 889 The Trinity (?) Infiltrates the Squad, Formation Complete!
"This is too awesome!"

Lamizane exclaimed again, "I remember Ignatius was the real Great Demon! He changed someone's name just by saying one word! That's amazing!"

The Border Collie began to snort, Clarks maintained his smile, Magna's metal death mask remained unmoved, and the pigeon struggled in someone's hand, complaining of dizziness and loudly demanding protection of animal welfare.

"Or perhaps I should explain for him?" Magna finally spoke up amidst the tense atmosphere.

"No need," the black and white plush tyrant snorted, exhaling a puff of hot air from its long nostrils. "Let me explain."

"Explain what?"

"The effect he created certainly looks impressive, but the Pale King actually used a lot of setup beforehand."

Peturabo BC opened his mouth to explain.

"The bodies he prepared for the 'Life Eater' to become flesh were first made from soulless fertilized eggs. He used his numerology and biological techniques, along with chemical agents, to rapidly catalyze these fertilized eggs, causing them to develop into living bodies with various organs but unable to bear a soul, which is commonly known as teratomas."

"Ah, I know that. So he used seven giant teratomas as flesh sacrifices?"

"Yes, this replaced the blood that should have flowed. In the process, because these teratomas were so thin, they shouldn't have been enough to complete the flesh-bearing of a great demon. But he used programming and psionic weaving to pre-implant his own sorcerous imprints into these bodies to maintain their strength—of course, he would say that was his programmed numbers. Subsequently, the great demon's body that was completed was essentially already made by him in advance, full of his imprints. So, of course, he could fill it with whose soul as the ignition program as he wished—if it met the condition of 'belonging to the Death Guard, having a steadfast soul, and being killed by the Life Eater at that moment,' the replacement would not cause a backlash."

"Brilliant! This kills two birds with one stone, even if the replacement fails..."

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"Even if the soul replacement fails due to the probability of the universe's response, Ignatius will still occupy this body. I can forcibly control him to act according to my will, but it will be very troublesome. I would like to reduce the trouble if possible."

After explaining the current situation to Caleb Arlin, who was flattered and completely at a loss in front of the three Primarchs, Mortarion quickly took the time to explain it to Pallas and Ruth as well.

"So you're saying you're sure this thing won't betray our operation, right?"

Riemann Russ pressed on with the question.

“His body is the cage I’ve woven,” Mortarian replied impatiently. “Didn’t you understand? Also, he has a name. Tell them your name again.”

The newly minted "Life Eater" archdemon, who had been waiting in a habitual servant posture, obediently accepted the order from the Pale King, just as he had when he was still Garo's weapon servant—because the former had given him a promise that he could hold onto, a promise that had proven reliable in the archdemon's supernatural senses.

“Caleb Arin. Your Highness Ruth… uh, Your Highness Forgrim?” The body, which maintained a complete cycle of corruption, bowed cautiously to the other two people present.

“You should still call me Pallas,” Pallas said. “Good heavens, even though he’s already of superhuman height, won’t that give him away?”

“He doesn’t need to show his face,” Mortarian said. “For biosafety reasons, when I deploy him, it’s reasonable for him to be fully covered in heavy armor, drive a vehicle alone ahead of the main force, clear the way according to the Warmaster’s plan, and release the virus along the way.”

“That makes sense,” Pallas said, “but I have a question.”

"what?"

What vehicle did you originally intend for him to drive?

"Rhino troop carrier".

“Alright.” Pallas turned to the bewildered Archdeacon, who had once been merely a servant of the Garo Legion, “Can you pilot the Rhinoceros of Astartes?”

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Ophir is located in the far east of Lupekaria and south of Larissa.

As the port with the largest throughput of promethium ore and finished products on the planet, it is also the location of the promethium refinery and fuel depot managed by the local mechanical sect.

In peacetime, countless cargo ships would come and go every day, transporting large quantities of promethium fuel to various ports and major cities in Morocco. But now, the sea off Ophir is empty. The damage and fire caused by the orbital salvo have forced the mechanical priests to temporarily shut down a large number of pipeline valves and suspend factory production.

This city, due to its important role and geographical location, has its own Void Shield Generator and a large number of armored legions to protect it—usually, the Admiral would say that they would take care of everything in the air, and the ground troops would just need to keep watch.

This statement was by no means unfounded confidence; at least, during the century that the soldiers of the Carnatic Armored Regiment had guarded this place, they had never fired a single shot at any real enemy.

However, due to the importance of the territory they were guarding and the abundance of fuel, their drills and exercises never stopped even when no enemies landed.

All of the armored regiment’s more than 500 vehicles—including Minotaur heavy tanks, Macado assault tanks, Stormhammer super-heavy tanks, and so on—are in a state of high combat readiness, with crews able to be in place within 15 minutes—a point that the Kanatik Armored Regiment has always been proud of.

Of course, this was a different matter in the eyes of Primarchs who were experienced in combat and had common sense about Wandering Harbors.

"...I simply can't believe such a thing is being done."

"I'm standing on the top of a hill next to the hangar," Pallas said, retracting his scope.

"They actually crammed over five hundred heavy vehicles, all with external fuel tanks, into the same underground hangar! But this hangar's so-called underground is only 'below ground level'... and they even meticulously set up only two main entrances and exits! If they lose air superiority and no one notifies them, a single saturation orbital bombardment could wipe them all out!"

"And the delivery capabilities of these two main entrances and exits..." Mortarian casually tapped a few keys on the keyboard, glanced at the numbers, and shook his head.

"Smashing down a few drop pods would wipe them all out. The crew can indeed get on the vehicles, but once the gates are blocked by bombing, very few tanks can drive out of the bunker."

"So what are they thinking... Don't they know that the 'Horus' fleet's wolf pack has already devoured the entire Imperial Navy of Moro?"

"Obviously, they've only just discovered it. And the tanks have only just begun to admit their crews and perform the awakening ritual."

Ruth pointed to the distant barrage of artillery fire emanating from the occupied orbital platforms, where the mechanical priests were raising the angles of the Ophir laser cannon turrets to calibrate the firing units aimed at the orbital platforms and the fleet. Further on the horizon, ominous high clouds of smoke rose above the skies marking the locations of other major cities in Moro, a consequence of Horus's orbital bombardment.

Judging from the frequency and intensity of the bombing, Pallas was completely pessimistic about whether anyone in those cities could survive.

The piercing sirens of air raid sirens echoed across the entire planet, drowning out the screams and cries of terror from the millions of people killed by bombing, fire, collapse, or whatever else.

"...Intra-galactic communication doesn't require many Star Speakers, so why haven't they even built communication relay stations?"

"It is clear that they have completely underestimated the speed at which the Space Marines can deploy and prepare. My numerology indicates that the bunkers of the ground forces here are truly impregnable; the Source Reversion Society has turned the entire mountain into bunkers. But they have absolutely no defensive measures against the bombing of the Astartes fleet and the raids of the drop pods."

This cold remark cast a shadow over both Primarchs' faces.

"In other words, at the time, 'he' believed that the Primarch and the Legion were not in danger of betraying him, or that if such a betrayal did occur, he had prepared reliable insurance measures."

Pallas sighed and glanced at Russ.

The wolf king remained silent.

Mortarian exhaled the air from his lungs, then got up and walked toward a ventilation opening in the hangar.

"Alright, let's get to work. Remember where each of you is supposed to break these glass ampoules. My calculations show that the wind direction and flow rate are most suitable for the next seven minutes."

"What was the original fate of these tanks and their crews?" Pallas asked curiously as he began to pull out the ampoules made by Mortalian from his pouch.

“Well,” the Pale King thought for a moment, “the drop pods carrying ten thousand Death Guards landed precisely in this area. Just like you said, none of them were able to leave the hangar; they were all wiped out.”

Has anyone rebelled against you?

“Yes.” Mortalian seemed to recall something, tilting his head. “One Stormhammer tank survived the first wave of bombardment and even fired a shot at me amidst the flames. Commendable effort.”

"and then?"

"And then? 'Silence' fell, and life and death were separated."

The sound of the small glass ampoule shattering was negligible amidst the deafening bombardment, the rumble of five hundred tank engines, and the shouts of soldiers and officers running around.

But soon, a deathly silence began to envelop the noisy and enormous hangar.

Then, one by one, the anti-aircraft gun emplacements, laser turrets, and any other weapons and equipment around the hangar that required human intervention or wet-machine operation fell silent in the direction the wind was blowing.

The promethium fire, which had not yet been extinguished, was still burning fiercely outside the spilled fuel canisters, but the sirens echoing over Ophir were growing weaker and weaker, and the retaliatory artillery fire was going from dense to sporadic, and then to almost nothing.

The very few lucky survivors, unaware of what had happened, hid in bunkers or at home, peering out of the curtains in terror.
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Then, the sky, thick with black smoke, was illuminated by the blazing fire.
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A thunderous roar, accompanied by the blackened surfaces of the drop pods scorched by the heat of breaking through the atmosphere, accompanied one after another like hellfire meteors.

Before they crashed to the ground due to gravity, the souls of the drop pods roared wildly, the reverse rocket engines forcibly reduced the descent speed, and the built-in gyroscopes adjusted the direction of the vertical descent.

The scorching engine airflow whipped up clouds of dust that billowed up from the ground. Before the dust settled, the doors of the drop pod opened in all directions, like faded, withered flower buds regaining their life. Five tall figures clad in bone white and moss green stepped out.

Morag walked up to Mortarion, bowed to his master, and glanced at the two "death shrouds" who were always by the Legion Commander's side with jealousy, incomprehension, and grievance.

"Are you ready?"

“As you wish, my lord,” the Primarch squire replied. “The Spartan assault tanks are ready.”

"great."

“But its weapons and defense systems are far too rudimentary, sir!” Morag made a last-ditch effort to fulfill his duty. “Please take some Dreadnoughts or other vehicles with you! One is simply…”

“Spartacus has the fastest and largest speed and capacity we have, so that’s the one. As for you…”

Dr. Mortalian pushed up his non-existent glasses, cleared his non-existent phlegm from his throat, and suddenly placed his hands on the shoulders of Kefa Morag, whose eyes were wide open, and began to give him a long and earnest reassurance.

The main points of the message included: "You are one of Dad's favorite sons, you are special"; "I know you are particularly tolerant of the other brothers and are especially good at assisting me, which has been a great help to me. Now that we have lost the first, second, and seventh company commanders, I have a task that only you can complete"; "If there are any other people in the legion who do not understand my good intentions, you must help me persuade them and make sure that everyone acts according to the plan I left behind. This is a great responsibility, and I do not trust anyone else to do it."

Kefa Morag was completely disoriented again, and was on the verge of collapsing on the spot.

Ruth and Pallas listened intently to the entire series of skillful, almost pathetic, pessimistic pronouncements from a lab graduate student conference advisor, and then commented from inside their helmets.

[This is terrifying. This is so targeted. He definitely didn't come up with this on his own. What has he been through to become so skilled?]

I don't know, and I don't want to know. The faint deathly aura he exuded when he said that was too obvious.

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As more and more drop pods, Stormbirds, Stormhawks, and other vehicles landed in Ophir, the Death Guard's accompanying Mechanic immediately began to put the city back into operation after taking over without damage.

The feedback received by the Horus Combined Fleet in orbit was that the Death Guard had taken over Ophir as planned and had begun to resupply promethium fuel to the other troops landing on the ground.

Since everything was running so smoothly, no one bothered to cross the continent to check on the Death Guards' specific combat situation.

A Spartan high-speed assault tank, painted black and unidentifiable by its legion, carrying three Primarchs, half of the (Forgotten) Ironhand, and a Life Eater Archmage dressed in a Saturn-shaped Terminator, sped out of one of the city gates of Ophir towards the vast forest.
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*The image below shows a Raven Spartan Assault Tank.

(End of this chapter)