Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 392: Martian Monster
The Forge-General marched with Malcador, guarded by the Custodians.

Kelbohar had an extremely cold conversation with the Seal Bearer.

"Help the Imperial Senate replace the War Council, as we agreed before. When will the gift you promised to the entire Mechanicum arrive?"

"That gift of ancient technology has arrived on Mars as we speak, Forge General."

"Thank you."

The conversation between the two was very simple and direct, just like the communication between two people with transparent minds, without any beating around the bush.

This is because both Kelbohar and Makado believe that using euphemisms when communicating with each other only increases time costs and has no value.

Just like the discussion I had with Qin Xia and Angron just now.

Generally speaking, this kind of high-level meeting of the empire would last for ten days or half a month, but when all the people present were smart, they would only need to discuss it for a few sentences, end it, and go home.

Just as he was about to enter the elevator, a person slowly walked out from the shadow of the sidewalk.

The imperial guards immediately raised their weapons and aimed at the man.

Malcador glanced at Kelbor's reaction, raised his hand, and signaled the Custodians to put down their weapons.

“Please continue.” Kelber looked at Malcador with eyes as cold as a machine. “I need to discuss something with my apprentice.”

The person who comes out from the fork in the road is the quadrant.

Kelborhar watched the Imperial Guards and Malcador leave first, then turned to look at the apprentice. His eyes were no longer cold, but showed some spirit.

"Teacher." Quadrant saluted with a gear.

At this moment, Kelbo guessed the apprentice's intention, but it was not until Quadrant spoke that he realized that his guess was useless.

"Can you not kill Zeth?" Quadrant's voice was as cold as when Kelbohar faced others, a purely mechanical coldness.

"Why should she be kept?" Kelber said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone, which was completely different from the tone he used when speaking in front of others. He seemed to have become a flesh-and-blood person. "Besides wearing bronze armor and flirting around, the only thing she can do is mess up everything. I don't think she is worth keeping."

The Quadrant's crude and inferior voice device once again emitted a voice without any emotion: "I am not considering the issue from the perspective of interests, or rather, I am not considering the issue from the perspective of your interests. Zes has taken good care of me, so I just don't want her to die."

Kelbo narrowed his eyes and suddenly realized that Quadrant did not eavesdrop on the meeting just now, but was found by Zeth and begged by Zeth to plead for him.

However, Kelbo's strategy was to use the conflict on Dawn Star to eliminate dissidents.

Seeing his mentor's silence, Quadrant realized that it was pointless to plead on his behalf and also fell silent.

After a minute of silence...

Quadrant said: "Teacher, you are such a heartless old man."

When Quadrant, who uses a low-quality vocal device, says this, it gives the impression of cursing on an old radio.

"Being heartless and disloyal is not a weakness, but low intelligence is." Kelber snorted and chuckled, and continued, "A top cyborg trained by the Martian Casting General is doing odd jobs for a legion. You are even more useless than Zeus."

"I am on the path of knowledge designed for me by the God of All Things," said the Quadrant.

"The God of All Things designed it for you...how arrogant and presumptuous!" Kelbo scolded.

"Teacher... I still want to call you mentor. After all, I have learned a lot from you."

Quadrant's shoulders flexed upward and then dropped back down in an awkward shrug.

"I am just stating the facts. I have received more blessings than any believer who worships the God of All Things every day. I can easily bring out an old scientific research result, which is enough to make one of your opponents become a sage right under your nose. I am a genius, and I have no shortcomings except that I am timid."

"Teacher, you deliberately suppressed my in-depth exploration of bionics. You thought you had found several other subjects in me that I was good at, but I was not interested in the subjects you forced me to learn. I just pretended to be interested in them to deal with you. But even so, the talents I showed still made you exclaim that I was a genius."

"I should have spoken to you like this a long time ago, my mentor, but before today I didn't realize what a jerk you are."

Kelbo sneered, looking at Quadrant's body, as if to say: You, a genius, have trapped yourself in such a broken iron cage? You can go to any forging world and exchange for a free body under the banner of your mentor, and it won't be as inferior as the one you have now!
"This inferior body is just the embodiment of the control and fear you exert on me. I already have a better human vessel, but I still wear this to see you." Quadrant said, "I have close friends, a cause I am loyal to, and a legion I love... The negative influence you exerted on me has disappeared, just like the rebellion I showed in our current conversation."

After hearing this, Kelbohar fell silent, anger filling his chest.

He always felt that the reason why Quadrant maintained its inferior metal body even after reaching a place beyond the control of the Mechanicus was because his obedience to Quadrant was deeply rooted in his soul - he felt happy whenever he thought of this.

Kelbo was genuinely happy to see a genius who was even more talented than himself when he was young being tamed.

And when the quadrant broke free of this tameness, Kelbor's chest was filled with rage, and every beat of his mechanical heart deepened the feeling of anger.

The quadrant believes that Kalbohar has obviously not gotten rid of his biological nature.

As long as one is a human being, he or she will have complex thoughts and emotions. No matter what status or experience this human being has, unless he or she is not a human being at all, the best they can do is to make their appearance contradictory to their heart, that is, not show their emotions on their face.

Kalbohar displayed a cold and nonchalant attitude towards other people, showing the so-called coldness that people think a superior should have... but it was just that the emotions generated in his heart by external stimuli were not enough to drive the nerves in his face or limbs to perform as expected, that's all.

"Get out of here, Forge General."

Heavy footsteps were heard.

Angron walked out from behind Quadrant, and as Quadrant stared back at him in confusion, he said to Kelbor, "If you try to do anything to Quadrant here, I'll grab your head and throw you to the end of the corridor."

"If other Primarchs said this, I would think it was a meaningless threat, but if you said this, I believe you can practice what you preach." Kelbor responded, "Because you really don't have much rationality."

Angron did not reply, but pointed in the direction of leaving the corridor.

Kelbo looked at the quadrant, was silent for a moment, seemed to be hesitant to speak, and left quietly.

After the Forge General left, Angron sensed the Quadrant's inner thoughts.

The Primarch discovered that, in terms of Kelborhar alone, the Quadrant's heart was different from before.

The previous quadrant was still submissive. On the one hand, he hated his mentor who had transformed him into this person, but on the other hand, he was grateful to his mentor and missed some of the past events when he had been with Kalbohar. Of course, Kalbohar was not so scary at that time.

It was not until he left Mars and came to the World Eaters to serve as a recorder, and then realized what his mentor had done through several things, that Quadrant became completely disappointed with Kelber, just as Kelber was disappointed in him.

"He doesn't intend to kill the man you want to plead for." Angron told the truth without hesitation. "His feelings for you are more complicated than yours for him. This guy... is the Martian Mechanicus version of Perturabo. That's all I can say about him." Angron didn't worry that revealing Kelbor's complicated inner world would cause Quadrant to have illusions and immediately think that his mentor was a good person, and he still had to get along well with his mentor.

Because in the eyes of the Primarch, the Quadrant is his own people, the kind that will not betray him.

"In that case, he is even more terrifying and hateful." Quadrant raised his head and looked at the Primarch's face. "What kind of monster would have the flesh and blood affection of a father to his son, but abuse his son at the same time."

Angron blinked, thinking about something, then pursed his lips and nodded.

Quadrant didn't think much about it, but just talked about Kelbo's matter.

Angron suddenly smiled.

The Primarch was genuinely happy for Quadrant, because every time Kelbohar came over in the past, Quadrant would be scolded by his mentor like a grandson but still had to entertain his mentor. Now, Quadrant finally stopped accepting it.

……

That night.

When Yu Qinxia pulled Angron to talk to the Primarchs, Quadrant installed the equipment he made for amplifying psychic energy in the library of the White Knight.

Angron discovered that the Quadrant had taken on a new body.

His body did not change into a completely human appearance, it was still tall and heavy, but the technology he used was updated.

A technology that was reverse-engineered by Quadrant from relevant technical data provided by the forging engine engineer, namely: splitting and restoring the atomic structure, and then producing a similar morphological effect. He applied this technology to his own limbs, allowing the limbs to be transformed into a variety of tools.

In short, similar to Brown's transformable body.

"Why are you still so big?" Qin Xia asked with a frown.

"Because I still need to research and manufacture." Quadrant replied coldly, "Kelber's pragmatism has changed me forever. Between a completely simulated human appearance and practical convenience, I chose the latter. My research is not over yet, and I have to continue to endure and sacrifice for my career."

"Then why don't you change the sound device? It still sounds like the teacher's radio, without any emotional waves." Qin Xia knocked on the rusty sound device on the face of the quadrant's brand new body.

Quadrant's upgraded face made an expression, with brows slightly furrowed, as if hesitating about something.

“Because you once said that there was something special about his cold, even voice when he cursed or joked,” Angron said. “That’s what he thought.”

"Haha, that's true!" Qin Xia said with a smile, "But Quadrant, you don't have to keep something you don't want to keep just to please anyone. Whether to replace or keep this sound device should depend on your personal opinion, not the opinions of others."

Quadrant nodded slowly, without saying anything, and continued to install the device.

In any case, his original body that was created by Kelbohar with the intention of punishment has been replaced. Qin Xia feels that Kelbohar and Malcador coming together for this is not just a sideshow for him, but also brought an unexpected gain.

The quadrant is installed with the device.

Qin Xia contacted the Primarchs at a faster speed than before.

As before, in the illusion of wind and snow, the Primarchs gradually emerged while quickly acquiring information as if watching a recap.

But this time it was the Primarchs who had agreed to participate in the conflict last time.

"You got Dawnstar, the Empire got what they wanted, and we got nothing." Before Perturabo's phantom fully emerged, the voice had already come out, "Qin Xia, where is the so-called Astartes seat that you, the arrogant man, promised before?"

Angron rolled his eyes at Perturabo and didn't want to say a word to him.

Because he sensed that Perturabo actually knew it very well and was just looking for trouble.

"The future is within our reach, if we remain united."

Qin Xia spoke on behalf of Angron this time.

"From now on, we refuse to follow any orders from the Imperial Senate and only follow orders from the Imperial War Council."

"The replacement of the War Council by the Parliament will begin gradually. There will be a period of confusion at first, with the handover of affairs and power... In short, it is impossible for the Imperial Parliament to replace the War Council as easily as Malcador clicking a button."

"During this period, there will be a lot of intrigue between the replacers and the replaced, and we can take advantage of this stage."

"For example, when the Imperial Parliament and the War Committee simultaneously send planetary managers to a newly conquered planet, we only recognize the latter's management rights over the planet and only cooperate with the latter's takeover of the planet."

When Qin Xia said this, the Primarchs immediately understood what it meant to only obey the orders of the War Council.

This is not an order at the strategic level. The War Council does not issue war orders because the Emperor is still leading the Great Crusade. However, the planets captured in the Great Crusade do need to be taken over with the orders of the War Council.

And then there are supplies.

In any case, the Astartes are the main force and backbone of the Great Crusade. In the early stages, the Imperial Parliament will try to win over the various legions and take over the task of allocating military supplies from the War Committee. At that time, they will refuse the allocation of supplies from the Imperial Parliament.

But this also leads to a problem.

"You are aware that not all legions have a large number of industrial worlds like Nuceria, Ultramar and Salvation that can support the legion's material consumption." Perturabo said.

"We will provide supplies." Qin Xia replied, "Please believe us. Nuceria and Ultramar will set up a material management department. This department will be composed of Astartes. Under the calculations of the Astartes, the supplies needed by each legion can be reasonably arranged."

"Bear the material consumption independently? Anyone will think that we have the potential to rebel..." Chagatai reminded.

"I don't see how much the emperor and the seal holder fear this kind of thing." Qin Xia said frankly.

In Qin Xia's opinion, in fact, regardless of whether the legions have the backing of Nuceria and Ultramar, they have in fact become warlords, and the Empire cannot say that it has done nothing about this situation, but the measures taken can only be described as makeshift.

"By obeying the War Council and resisting Parliament, what we want to achieve is to force the Empire to make concessions?" Corax asked.

"Yes. But this will not be all the means we use." Qin Xia nodded, "This is just one of all the steps we have to take."

The Primarchs pondered upon hearing this.

Finally, in silence, new measures were formulated.

(End of this chapter)