Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 505: Horrifying Alien
Planet Gugan.

The surface of the planet trembled, and the land plates rose from the ground just as Qin Xia said.

It was a geological structure of the planet itself and a creation of the Hrud. This behemoth based on the celestial body itself caused a devastating ecological disaster when it broke away from the planet.

Lava gushed out from underground and the surface of the planet was covered with cracks.

Flames gushed out from beneath the land plates, burning the planet's own matter as it rose from the ground and slowly ascended into the sky.

This is not even a secret weapon of the Hrud, but a necessary means of transportation for them when migrating.

When the land plates rose into the air, several flashes suddenly appeared in the void, and the Hrud fleet arrived at the Gugan galaxy.

The warships were presented on the holographic image, their outlines were extremely vague, and even their positions were elusive. The ship auspex could not make them "solid" in the way they were collected and presented on the holographic image.

The huge ship, like a geological structure, took off into the air and headed towards the Hrud fleet.

At the same time, a stream of energy spread out from the Hrud people.

Energy diffuses extremely slowly, but wherever it passes, matter withers and time and space become chaotic.

In a part of the void affected by it, the background-like stars appear as they did millions of years ago or tens of millions of years later - there is no pattern.

The planets that were first affected by the energy began to "age", and the geological plates collapsed millions of times faster.

Even the star in the Gugan Galaxy aged faster when it was affected by the energy wave, and became several times larger in an instant.

An officer's exclamation rang out in the dull command deck: "The star...the star has been catalyzed into a red giant!"

Perturabo looked at the iron plate in front of him, as if he could see the void outside.

The Primarch remained silent.

Everyone on the command deck felt powerless from the inside out, as if they were the primitive people in the primitive world who admired miracles and thought they were the power of gods.

A star still in its prime, after being affected by the strange methods of the Hrud people, actually completed a journey that would have taken billions of years to complete in less than a few minutes and became a red giant.

And it is still being catalyzed, entering a supernova state or even turning into a black hole, it is only a matter of time.

"Retreat," Perturabo said.

He doesn't need to say anything more.

The order that the Iron Warriors were so proud of had now vanished.

The fleet didn't care about formation or array at all, and fled in all directions in a hurry.

The energy diffused extremely slowly, which was not a disadvantage but an advantage. The slowness brought a sense of oppression, like the sword of Damocles hanging over people's heads and ready to fall at any time, which was enough to cause the morale of any legion to collapse at this moment.

The White Knight Think Tank Fleet ran much faster than the Iron Warriors.

The heavy cruiser White Knight was already close to Mandeville Point under the captain's arrangement. While other Iron Warriors warships were still running away, it was already preparing to start the subspace engine.

But although the captain was timid, he was not stupid. He knew that his battleship was in a state where it could jump away at any time, so he had some time to do something for his friendly forces.

The think tanks gathered in the Great Library and opened subspace portals for friendly warships to perform short-distance jumps, which could be of some help.

The Iron Blood, as the flagship of the Legion, was the slowest. When it turned, its sister ship, the Iron Glory, blocked its escape path.

Perturabo immediately contacted the Iron Glory: "Get out of the way! Otherwise the flagship will pass through the center of the Iron Glory!"

The captain in charge of the Iron Glory responded: "The Hruds have boarded this ship and have occupied the engine control room. The battleship can only retreat at the slowest speed."

"Then find a way to survive first!" Perturabo roared, "Get out of that ship and get on my warship. I have someone who can take you here..."

Before he could finish his words, Qin Xia had already walked towards the wall and disappeared in the sudden snowstorm.

The flagship has no portholes and cannot see the outside world.

A moment later, the servitor that had been made into living wetware reported: "The Iron Glory has disappeared."

Qin Xia teleported back.

"Where are the ships?" Perturabo asked.

"Here." Qin Xia held the elf creature hanging around his waist.

Perturabo breathed a sigh of relief.

The Legion's fleet evacuated the Gugan system.

Surprisingly, the Hrud fleet did not continue the pursuit even though they had a great advantage.

Perhaps in the eyes of these aliens, the ship the size of a land plate is the most important, and protecting their own kind during migration is their primary responsibility.

……

The Iron Warriors fleet is scattered in the void outside the Gugan system.

Perturabo tried to contact other warships, but after repeated attempts, he could only helplessly say to Qin Xia: "Communications are affected by star sunspots. I can't contact any warships."

Qin Xia waved his hand and turned the flagship wall transparent.

The shining light shone into the command deck, and everyone felt like they were falling into the sun.

"That star is about to explode into a supernova. Normal means of communication are completely useless."

After saying that, Qin Xia waved his hand and the wall returned to its original state.

"Use psychic power to contact friendly forces." Perturabo commanded Qin Xia naturally, "Use your psychic power."

"I refuse." Qin Xia shook his head. "If you don't promise to evacuate with the legion, I won't help you contact other ships. Otherwise, why would you bring them back? Are you going to find the Hruds and die again?"

Perturabo hammered the holographic device in annoyance.

When this device was broken by a hammer before, it was quickly restarted and returned to normal because it was built by Perturabo himself. Now it has been broken by a hammer again.

“This war is wrong.”

"What a mistake!" Perturabo complained loudly, pacing the command deck, not shying away from the presence of his offspring.

"Why did the Emperor ask me to attack them? The place where they are located is impossible to colonize, and it is not located on the route of the Great Crusade, nor is it even in the Imperial expansion plan. Not to mention that the Hrud are a scavenger tribal race, and they don't even have a decent space civilization!"

"This wrong war was caused by the Emperor's vanity."

"..."

Qin Xia listened silently.

In fact, he understood Perturabo's thoughts very well.

In Perturabo's view, the Emperor was like a player in a Paradox game, only concerned with coloring the map to make the territory of his influence look beautiful.

Qin Xia usually said a few words for the Emperor, especially after learning the real reason why the Emperor destroyed the Perfect City... But now, he also wanted to stand on Perturabo's side and say something - "Mr. Onis of Terra is really bored and looking for trouble, like a mouse licking a cat..."

"I have made too many mistakes in this war." Perturabo sat on the holographic device and suddenly reflected on himself.

"Don't talk about those useless things." Qin Xia said, "In the one hundred fates I foresaw, no matter how cautious or not, the final result is that you will be beaten to a pulp by the Hrud in the Gugan system."

"You have a foul mouth." Perturabo gritted his teeth.

"If I hadn't reminded you, you would have lost dozens of ships here." Qin Xia turned and left. "You even asked me to use my psychic power to help you contact other ships. Go to hell with that. Just wait and join up with the other legions that have arrived. Don't try to be so frivolous."

Perturabo glared at Qin Xia and "watched" Qin Xia walk out of the command deck.

There was no stopping, nor any soft words to keep him.

When Qin Xia disappeared, Perturabo turned to look at Dantioch.

Dantioch's heart tightened and he realized that something was wrong.

"You go." Perturabo pointed to the gate, "You go find him and ask him to use his psychic power to help me assemble the fleet."

Dantioch's eyes and expression were complicated, but there was nothing he could do. He could only silently serve as a bridge of communication as before.

……

Qin Xia did not help Perturabo assemble the fleet after all.

The Hrud aliens did not send a fleet to pursue.

Half a month later, the Forge Engine and the fleets of various legions gathered outside the Gugan system, and the Iron Warriors regrouped.

The Primarchs of the various legions gathered on the forge engine.

Perturabo was the last to arrive, and when his transport plane landed in a section of the world ship, the Forge Engine, he saw several of his other brothers on the beach.

Angron.

Leman Russ, Curze, Vulkan, Jaghatai, Guilliman.

All the Primarchs were silent.

The only sounds Perturabo could hear were the waves hitting the beach and the whistling sea breeze.

As everyone was looking at him as a latecomer, Perturabo subconsciously turned his attention to other things, such as thinking about how the ecosystem within the ship, the Forge Engine, was established.

Angron sensed the hearts of his other brothers.

Qin Xia has informed everyone of the Iron Warriors' disastrous defeat in the Battle of the Abyss. Except for Curze, who doesn't care about so many things at all, the Primarchs are extremely dissatisfied with Perturabo's decision not to wait for assembly but to directly lead the Iron Warriors to attack the Hrud aliens.

Not to mention that Perturabo was defeated miserably.

"The Hrud aliens are obviously not that easy to deal with." Chagatai said, "They are even more difficult to deal with than the Randan aliens. If it were Lion, he would choose to lead the Dark Angels to fight two more Randans, and would not choose to lead the Legion to fight the Hrud to death."

After a pause, the Eagle of Chogoris added: "It is not Ryan's style to choose to fight alone when he can lead other legions to fight together."

"Indeed." Angron nodded. "Let's not rush to attack. I need to judge whether the strategic order issued by the Emperor is really meaningful. In the meantime, let's arrange our respective fleets to detect the movements of the Hrud aliens."

All the Primarchs except Perturabo nodded.

Seeing that Angron had nothing else to arrange, the Primarchs ended this brief meeting.

As early as the Legion was assembled, Angron assigned appropriate duties to each Primarch.

For example, Guilliman is responsible for managing logistics matters including the World Eaters Legion.

Naturally, there are not so many things to discuss at this time.

After the brothers left, Angron looked at Perturabo and asked, "Why did you lead the Legion away from the road to Nuceria and go directly to deal with the Hrud aliens?"

"You can see into my heart and you know the reason, so don't ask useless questions." Perturabo said impatiently.

“Tell me!” Angron came up to his brother and looked down at Perturabo.

Perturabo spoke without hesitation.

"This is for your consideration."

"The Emperor's orders are meaningless. If we all attack the Hrud aliens, we will definitely be delayed by this damn alien race for more than ten years. By then, Horus will be advancing triumphantly, and you will stand still. Do you think you are still worthy of being a Warmaster?"

"If the Iron Warriors are held back, it will only be one legion that is stopped. You can still lead the others to advance triumphantly."

Hearing this, Angron, who had long seen through Perturabo's heart, gave the answer he had already prepared.

"The Emperor's orders are indeed incomprehensible, but the problem is not entirely with him. You have always been dissatisfied with the difficult combat responsibilities you and your legion have undertaken, and even more dissatisfied with the fact that you have never received honorable recognition. However, you will still obey the Emperor's orders and choose to throw your legion into the quagmire of war."

"If you ask me, you can't blame others for what happened to you before."

Angron then walked past Perturabo, wanting to give his brother some time to think things over.

Perturabo looked at Angron's back and asked, "Are we going to fight the Hrud Alien or not?"

"I need time to think about it. I also need to learn more about this alien race," Angron responded.

(End of this chapter)