Warhammer 40: My Fiancée Fulgrim.

Chapter 241 Peturabo, you don't want this either.
Extreme star field.

Olympia, the capital of the Steel Empire.

As a "country within a country" existing in the human world, the rebellious and disloyal acts here should, in theory, have been swiftly annihilated by the human empire after the great rebellion.

Unfortunately, this small world is guarded by the Iron Lord, Perturabo, and his iron warriors.

The defensive fortifications designed by the Iron Warrior Primarch blocked all the fleets that came to quell the rebellion.

Every world is protected by endless steel fortifications. Even worlds that are worthless and don't need any construction are required by the fanatical Peturabo to have base defenses built that cover the entire terrain.

With such a high density of buildings, even though the human empire had organized several annihilation fleets, they ultimately returned empty-handed after paying a thousand times the price.

Even when Regent Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines tried to "persuade" Perturabo to repent and return to the Empire, he was still rejected.

According to the Iron Lord, Perturabo is confident that he can die here alongside Guilliman.

Even if Guilliman were to destroy his steel empire at great cost, Perturabo would never allow the other side and its five hundred star systems to live in peace.

He no longer cares about anything, but Guilliman still needs to save the dying human empire.

Don't be afraid of wearing shoes if you are barefoot.

If you don't dare, then don't bother him anymore.

He would no longer serve his hypocritical emperor father in the slightest, nor would he have any further dealings with the pathetic empire under his rule.

Set it.

For the past ten thousand years, even during the three thousand years when Guilliman fell into slumber and all the Primarchs of the Empire departed, the Iron Empire truly did not launch a single attack, just as Peturabo had said.

Even within the Iron Empire, Primarch Peturabo is rarely seen anymore.

After that, the relationship between the human empire and the steel empire continued uneventfully.

Even the Martian Mechanicus secretly engaged in some clandestine exchanges with the Iron Empire due to technical reasons.

Olympia, under Peturabo's transformation, has become a complete steel world.

Unimaginable steel structures stretch upwards from the planet's surface, layer upon layer.

Under Peturabo's meticulous construction, this eternal steel jungle will ceaselessly produce more processed building materials and finished metal products, further strengthening his already heavily armed steel empire.

"My lord, I have a message to convey to you."

Accompanied by the clanging of steel footsteps, Peturabo's most trusted subordinate, the war blacksmith Honso, opened the secure door to the secret chamber.

The steel-constructed passageway had no windows—just like the design Peturabo had used on the Ironblood. Honso strode forward, approaching one of the Iron Ring Automatons.

Only a handful of Trident members knew Peturabo's location, and only war blacksmiths like Honso, who were deeply trusted by the enemy, knew which Iron Ring Automaton was transmitting information to the Primarch.

In fact, Honseau himself didn't know why this happened—

In fact, his origins were not honorable—Honsor did not remember his origins; he was born in a mysterious underground laboratory and possessed pre-loaded Space Marine knowledge.

He knew that one of his genetic fathers was Peturabo. In order to return to his father's side, Honso hid in the Middle East of the Human Empire for more than half a year, and finally managed to escape to the Iron Empire by sneaking into a corpse transport ship.

And then he finally met Peturabo, one of the fathers of his own genes whom he had never met before.

Of course, this was practically a declaration of his own death.

Perturabo doesn't like being disturbed—some brave souls tried to go up and were thrown out as corpses by the iron ring robots and into the incinerator.

However, to everyone's surprise, Peturabo did not kill the ungrateful fellow outright.

Even after Hong Su made some rude remarks, the Lord of Iron was not angry at all. Instead, he asked Hong Su to play chess with him with great interest.

It is clear that Honso is no match for PIXNET – after losing five games in a row, Peturabo said that Honso is just a mediocre and incompetent guy.

If he can't come up with something that interests him, he might end up like those other useless guys before him, getting scooped out by the iron ring robot.

But at the start of the sixth and final game, Pi, like a true father, patiently guided Hongsuo to break free from his fixed mindset: "Don't fight like a steel warrior, Hongsuo. I want you to fight like yourself. Fight like Hongsuo."

—Is this something Peturabo would say?
Peturabo only showed a relieved smile after Hunso finally won.

She's so gentle and thoughtful.

He was completely different from the cold-blooded and ruthless Iron Lord in the rumors.

Even Hong Su himself didn't know why he was being treated so kindly by Hong Su alone.

"what's up?"

Peturabo's question pulled him out of his previous thoughts.

"Abaddon of the Black Legion—he is plotting his thirteenth expedition to Cadia. Once it is accomplished, the Eye of Terror will expand smoothly, and the False Emperor's pathetic empire will collapse afterward."

Abaddon claimed that all twelve of his expeditions were preparations for this final blow.

It's easy to imagine just how important this thirteenth Black Crusade was to Abaddon.

"He is willing to offer you the Blackstone Fortress as a gift in exchange for your help."

The war blacksmith Hong Suo stepped forward and reported to the Iron Ring Automaton.

However, the only response he got was silence.

"Okay, is there anything else?"

The Iron Lord remained noncommittal about his nephew, who was plotting to destroy the Empire.

"Furthermore, Belisarius Caul, the Archsage of the Mechanicus of the Imperium of Man, sent us a message in his capacity as Chapter Master of the Phoenix Sons—"

Hong Su frowned.

"My dear friend, I'm back to see you again."

"Petulabo, you don't want your activities at the Taliakren Grand Theatre to be exposed, do you?"

"We await your arrival in your forging world, the Steel Bastion."

"Ha ha ha ha."

(Reading in a monotone)
Snapped.

At this moment,
The steel gate in front of Hong Suo, which had been closed for countless years, was now open once again.

"Take me to him."

Peturabo said calmly.

The Iron Empire was heavily guarded.

However, this mechanical transport ship carrying a large amount of minerals was able to pass smoothly through Mandeville, which was guarded by numerous Iron Empire fleets.

This is a mining vessel provided by the Mechanical Repair Service in accordance with the agreement.

In order to meet the needs of construction, the Steel Empire requires a large amount of minerals, stone and energy. Obviously, the current output of the mining world within the Steel Empire is far from meeting its strong demand.

In this situation, it would be necessary to obtain the minerals that the human empire urgently needs through trade.

Despite repeated emphasis from within the Mechanicus that those who sided with the Iron Empire were impure mechanical heretics and that their actions would not be blessed by Omnesia, the god of machines.

But this still couldn't stop many great sages of the Mechanicus—such as Caul—from secretly using various means to bypass the Inquisition fleet and exchange the Mechanicus's mineral resources for Peturabo's construction technology.

Although the two sides appear to be mortal enemies, they have always been secretly exchanging glances.

But to be honest, there was no real hatred between the human empire and Peturabo.

Even if there were any, people would have calmed down by today, ten thousand years from now.

Unfortunately, the stubborn Peturabo never had the concept of calming down.

"The Steel Bastion is on the third planet in this star system, over there."

The main bridge of the mechanical transport ship.

The one directing the ore-laden transport ship into the Steel Empire beside Nacasca was the Steel Warrior who had suggested seeking help from Peturabo.

Now, having completed the original forging transformation, the former Space Marine Little Potato has suddenly grown into an extremely tall...

Although it is still square, the sense of oppression it gives people is completely different from the past.

Under his command, the ships that Casca had obtained from Caul flew the flags of mineral trading and evaded the patrols and inspections of the Steel Empire, sailing towards the space port of the Steel Bastion.

A single transport ship poses little threat to a fully armed steel empire.

Nevertheless, Steel Bastion has not placed any new ore orders recently.
"It is me, Kadan, formerly the company commander of the 32nd Company of the Fourth Battalion of the Iron Warriors."

"By order of the Iron Lord, we need to carry out a classified mission on the Steel Bastion."

However, this record is not in our data.

Furthermore, according to the database, Captain Kadan, the ship you last appeared on before your disappearance was attacked by the Dark Eldar.

"Enough! I'm back now!"

"This is a surprise inspection by the Primarch. Do you really intend to question Lord Iron Lord?"

"You all retreat for now and do not tell anyone what happened today." Just as the Iron Warrior guards were preparing to board the ship to investigate the situation, the Iron Warrior next to Kasga completed his identity verification.

"That's it."

“In the decades I spent with the Steel Warriors, I never experienced war. You can see for yourself, no one could remain happy under Peturabo’s command.”

The steel warrior named Cardan let out a heavy sigh.

Peturabo always has a variety of ways to cause trouble.

"Or perhaps we never need the emotion of happiness at all; I recall reading about the Iron Warrior in the literature."

"Alright, now we need to break in here."

Having already swapped his psionic powers for the Iron Man Power Armor shell, Kasgar promptly interrupted the opponent's endless chatter.

Over these ten thousand years, Perturabo's modifications to power armor seem to have taken a completely different path from those of the Empire of Man.

Wider, thicker, and heavier. This comes at the cost of reduced flexibility, allowing the power armor to carry more and larger long-range weapons.

It's more like a variant of the Centurion Power Armor.

If the original Forged Power Armor modification plan were given to Perturabo, the Phoenix Sage might actually be able to be armed to the teeth.

"I hope the star talkers of Peturabo have received my inquiry correctly."

Casca slowly stepped off the ship.

This time, he only brought Melusin and the former Iron Warrior Cardan with him.

Cardan was their guide on this trip, while Melusin was interested in the bioscience of the Steel Empire.

Meanwhile, because this infiltration might be dangerous, and because Titus's psionic insulator status prevented Kasgar from teleporting him away immediately, he arranged for him to wait on the Phoenix Sons' battle barge to train new recruits.

The entire steel bastion was filled with heat and the clanging of steel clashing—the entire steel world could be seen through holographic projections on both sides of the passageway, amidst a complex array of defensive mechanical installations.

—Although it has become extremely fragmented under countless layers of division, in the center of the spiraling tunnel of the casting world that is bottomless, in the center of the central pit thousands of meters deep, there is a divine machine that stands quietly.

"That is."

"An Emperor-class Titan with a steel skull, from the Titan Order of ten thousand years ago."

Cardin explained.

Ever since this forged world swore allegiance to Perturabo, the towering Imperial Titan has remained here, unmoved.

If it weren't for Kadan as a guide, Kasga might have been trapped in this world and unable to find a way out if he had gone alone.

“Take the left turn at the next corner – we have two options.”

Having once been one of the guardians of this world of forging, he knew perfectly well what treasures lay buried beneath this steel jungle.

In the unfathomable world of casting, at the very center of the massive central crater thousands of meters deep, just beneath his Emperor Titan, there seemed to be another realm.

“If possible, we hope to get personal help from Peturabo himself—if we can get his help, we will not only have no shortage of suitable power armor, but we will also have an excess of other equipment and ammunition.”

This is the best-case scenario.

As the assault regiment in the Great Expedition, Tie Yong always had more weapons and ammunition than he could ever use.

If they can gain Peturabo's support, the Phoenix Children will never have to worry about weapons and ammunition again.

"But of course, if the negotiations break down—there is a powerful artifact that we can use hidden in the underground region of this world-forging place."

Enter the interior of the Forging World through a hidden door at the very bottom.

Kadan led the group into the iron-gray elevator. Under his instructions, Casca felt a rapid descent that lasted for several minutes.

"What kind of divine artifact is that?"

"The mechanical monks here call it the 'Codex of Myriad Machines.' Legend has it that it is an ancient relic unearthed by the Iron Lord during one of his excavations into the demon world of the Great Vortex."

In short, it can use advanced technology from the dark age of technology to help users optimize and iterate their designs. Even if the other party does not understand the reason, the "Codex of All Machines" can help them complete the rearrangement and design of the production pipeline.

That is
While it can't simply throw in the product and get a finished product like STC, this powerful tool can help them arrange their production pipelines independently, providing reasonable suggestions and improvement plans based on database data for producing the products required in the design drawings.

What? Sounds like abhorrent intelligence, a specialization of industrial design databases?
No, no no!

This is a divine artifact! Do you understand? A divine artifact from the dark age of technology!
hiss.

This is Peturabo's steel empire.

It seems the Iron Lord didn't restrict the use of artificial intelligence?

“Well, Caul would definitely be interested in this kind of product,” Casgar replied with a smile.

"However, we may not be able to easily bring this thing back."

"Aren't you right, Peturabo?"

when.

As a notification tone sounded, the sealed elevator doors opened, revealing the mechanical structure deep underground.

There were also many Iron Ring Automatons who were pointing their cannons at Casca and the others.

Surrounded by the Iron Ring Automatons, appearing before Casca and the others was none other than the original form of the Iron Warrior.

Lord of Iron, Peturabo.

"Old friend, long time no see."

Rather than stealing the artifact and turning against Perturabo, Casgar would rather have a proper discussion with him about the matter.

After all, Kasgar didn't want Chaos to gain another powerful general.

“I have no interest in meeting you, and I have never acknowledged you as my brother-in-law.”

"But you still came, didn't you?"

His arrogance remains as strong as ever, just like it was a thousand years ago, Mr. Plankton.

"That's enough. I know why you came here, but I have no interest in it."

"Your threat of the Grand Theatre is outdated. I have long since let go of those obsessions."

Over these ten thousand years, Peturab gradually calmed down in solitude.

Since he stopped working overtime every day during the Emperor's Great Expedition, his energy and spirit are now far better than during the Great Expedition, and he no longer crushes the other party's head at the slightest disagreement.

And during those ten thousand years, his need for affirmation from others also diminished considerably.

Even his older sister was the same—human lifespan is ultimately short, and even though Perturabo had frantically built similar robots in an attempt to keep her, he still could not achieve a 100% replica of a person.

Over time, the former Lord of Iron has become peaceful.

Let it go.

He has let go of everything, and no matter what Casca tries to threaten him with now, he will remain unmoved.

Have you really let go of everything?

“But I have an even better testing opportunity, Iron Lord.”

Kasga glanced at Melusin beside him, then looked at Honso beside Perturabo with a half-smile in his eyes.

"Hongsuo!!!"

A sudden shout startled Hunso, who was standing next to Peturabo, and he looked completely bewildered.

"Don't you wonder why the Lord of Iron cares about you so much and treats you so gently?"

"Aren't you curious about your own true identity?!"

"!"

"?"

"Shut up, Casca, you bastard!!"

Finally, at this moment.

Peturabo, who hadn't shown any signs of temper for many years, suddenly became extremely agitated.

He rushed forward, about to order the Iron Ring Automaton to open fire.

"that is because--"

Kasgar paused, and then a psionic communication was transmitted into Peturabo's mind.

Peturabo

You wouldn't want Honsoe to know that his mother is actually Rogdorn, would you?

(End of this chapter)