Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

Hmm... I'll return it to him later.

Ezekiel thought to himself that he did not know what was written on the papers, but he believed that they were manuscripts written by the saint Otto when he prayed for revelation from the Savior, and were quite valuable.

But as he put the papers into the pouch on his belt used to store the special explosive magazines, an immense desire to look at them a few times arose from the depths of his heart, even overriding the oath he had sworn to keep the warband secret.

Ezekiel's face twitched. He found himself unable to suppress this desire at all. He reached into his bag, wanting to take the paper in his hand and examine it carefully.

Just then, a stray bullet struck Ezekiel squarely in the chest. The dull thud of his power armor being blasted open and the pain brought Ezekiel back to his senses.

What's wrong with me? Is it because I've overused psionic energy?

Ezekiel shook his head, putting aside his confusion, and prepared to reflect on it properly after the battle was over.

He was lost in thought, while Koji vented all his dissatisfaction and resentment on the Dark Eldar and Chaos Space Marines who were trying to kill them. Imaran, after completing his mission of transporting the Emperor's power, withered like a dying flower.

The hatred that had been stitched up could not stop Komi, even though he now only had one arm left.

However, his bravery and anger did not make the Conspiracy warriors behind the Chaos Space Marine feel the slightest bit nervous. Harald looked at the dejected Imran and even showed a proud smile of mission accomplishment.

"Let these big idiots die for us. We should go see Lord Victor and ask for a reward," Harald said in a private communication channel, then prepared to open a rift in the network to leave.

However, he failed... the rift leading to Comoros did not open.

What's going on? Is Lord Victor going to break his promise? Harald was a little nervous. He tried to contact Victor, but only received some indistinct laughter and the miserable screams of the Dark Eldar whose souls were being drained.

He immediately understood what this meant.

Comoros has been invaded by demons? At this critical moment? How could this be! How could this be?!

Harald turned pale upon realizing he could not escape. He watched as Komi cleaved the abominations in two, coiling their limbs several meters high, and suddenly felt his own head become weightless.

His drastic emotional fluctuations alerted the Conspiracy Society warriors, who questioned Harald about what had happened, but received only silence in return.

Chapter 572: Our family... has declined.

"We've been abandoned! Blackhearted Victor betrayed us!" The Conspiracy Squad warriors, realizing what had happened, shouted angrily. Having struggled to hold on in the melee, their morale was completely shattered, and they wanted to leave this damned place as soon as possible to find a way to survive.

The Dark Eldar are extremely afraid of death. In order to prolong their lives, they are even willing to become experimental subjects of the Bloodkin's immature biotechnology. They know that after they die, they will not go to heaven or hell, but will enter the warp and return to Slaanesh's side to suffer endless torment. Therefore, as long as they can prolong their lives by even a minute or a second, they will struggle to stay alive.

They scattered and ran quickly, trying to find the planes and escape pods on the warship.

Harald remained motionless, staring intently at Imaran's body, hoping that the shriveled mass of flesh would swell up again so that he could hear the voices coming from Comoros.

To his disappointment, Imran, which had been hanging in mid-air, fell to the ground, and the faceless nuns inside turned into indistinguishable, strangely smelling mush.

"Harald! You damned alien, stand still! I'm going to skin you alive!" Komi's roar made Harald tremble uncontrollably. He realized that the abominations he had created were being slaughtered, and the Chaos Space Marines were being driven to the brink of destruction by the Dark Angels.

Only then did he realize that he had to escape, but how could Komi let go of the guy who had made him lose his imperial power?

The javelins flew out of his hand and pierced Harald's body. The tips of these javelins were specially designed so that they would carry the person backward after piercing him, rather than piercing through and leaving a large, unhealable hole.

Harald screamed as he was pinned to the wall by Komi. He reached for the javelin on his shoulder, and then another javelin appeared in his palm.

Shoulders, palms, wrists, ankles...

Komi slowly approached Harald, each javelin avoiding vital spots, making Harald look like a hedgehog skin hanging on the wall.

Finally, Komi stared at Harald, watching his face change in despair, from a cunning and greedy merchant to a dark Eldar who revels in the suffering of others.

"Heh...you've replaced Harald, but I'm not interested in your true identity." Komi sneered. Harald pleaded for mercy, trying to fight for himself one last time.

"Spare my life! I still have value. I can tell you how to get to Comoros, I can help you research our race's weapons, and I can even tell you who else in the Gothic Sector's high command is an imposter!"

Upon hearing this, Koji genuinely wanted to spare his life, but...

"If you were an orc, I would believe you. But unfortunately, you're a dark elf, a damned creature whose saliva is poison. I have my own ways of slowly extracting everything you know from you. Right now, I just want to see you suffer a fate worse than death!"

Komi slashed with his sword, and Harald's head rolled to the ground. Komi grabbed his soul and instantly refined it into a broken soul brick with the characteristics of the Dark Spirit Clan.

This was just the beginning. Koji threw his soul brick to the two demons, Gouzi and Mimi, to handle, allowing them to do whatever they wanted with it, except let it die.

Demons have a knack for tormenting souls, and they immediately devised a torturous process for this new toy that would last for thousands of years.

However, Ezekiel was unaware of the intricacies of the situation. He stared at the head rolling on the ground and remarked that Koken had made the alien die too easily.

“If Azmodari were here,” Ezekiel said, but then he changed the subject, “but it would be a good decision to let him die quickly; his breath has polluted the world for too long.”

Harald's death also signaled the end of the betrayal instigated by the Dark Eldar, leaving only some aftershocks to be dealt with.

Harald's mercenaries were executed without mercy. No one could guarantee that there weren't disguised Dark Eldar mixed in among them. Komi coldly watched as these people recruited from all over the Gothic Sector were executed. Keeping their souls in the Pure White Hall was his last act of mercy.

The same fate befell Imaran's holy army. Some collapsed upon seeing Imaran's hideous appearance, overwhelmed with shame, and chose to commit suicide to atone for their sins. Others chose to lay down their weapons and accept the Empire's judgment.

The months-long siege of Iron Star came to an end. The Exterminator of Komi survived the chaos unscathed, but its personnel were reduced from 28,000 to 15,000. In the early stages of the battle, only 2,000 of the rescue army died, while the remaining 11,000 perished on their breakout attempt.

Excluding those who need to maintain the warships, Komi now only has about four thousand troops left to deploy for surface combat. This result has pained Komi for a long time, not to mention the loss of equipment such as the Genshiki defensive armor, beacons, and Soul Steel.

The only consolation for Komi was that he owned all the remaining supplies and ships of Harald and Imaran, giving him over eight hundred ships at once!

However, Komi only had some ships that the Imperial Navy didn't want. He couldn't find any of the sailors responsible for controlling these warships. He could only watch these warships float in the star system of Ironbreaker Star, waiting for a group of sailors who had received void navigation training to board them by transport plane.

Koken was also deeply frustrated by this. In the long run, he was indeed many times richer than before, but in the short term, he had become a penniless man who struggled to even maintain the Punisher.

The post-war debriefing also did not forget Frith and Griffin. Komi believed that their performance in the war of betrayal was quite suspicious, especially Griffin, whose troops seemed to have vanished without a trace, and whose fleet was not strong enough to intercept Harald and Imaran's fleet.

Griffin defended himself, giving a long list of reasons, but Komi was too lazy to listen to his explanations and directly ordered Ezekiel to find a reliable judge to investigate the guy, and to execute him on the spot if any problems were found.

Komi also received a letter from Fritz, in which she expressed her helplessness at the fact that the Childe family had produced so many traitors and offered her a deep apology to Komi. Of course, what touched Komi the most was the promise she left at the end of the letter.

“Saint Otto, although you do not have the blood of the Child family flowing in your veins, your performance has proven that your bloodline is more noble than that of the Child family. Now, three of the most likely candidates to become the family patriarch have already perished. If the current patriarch remains unconscious and cannot awaken, then I will become the next successor of the family. If you are willing, I can entrust the leadership of the Child family to you.”

Chapter 573: Yes, Primarch

Fritz's letter was full of apology and humility, like a lowly vendor struggling to make a living in the city suddenly meeting the high-ranking pope of the state church.

But even from this attitude, Komi could still discern some of Fritz's thoughts.

After the Battle of Ironstar, the Childe family was destined for decline. What was originally intended as a war to prove the family's continued loyalty to the Empire and the Emperor turned into a new traitor.

During this sensitive period of rampant chaos, the Childe family not only failed to become the vanguard in resisting the invasion, but also hindered General Lewandberg at every turn.

The Supreme Commander of the Gothic Sector will certainly not tolerate the Child Family's stupidity and incompetence. The Inquisition's investigation is just the beginning. Then, the Mechanicus, which has always been at odds with the Child Family, will launch an attack. The Terra High Lord Council, which used to stand behind the Child Family, will also change its attitude and may even lend a hand to add fuel to the fire of the Child Family's disintegration.

If it were merely disintegration and decline, that would be one thing, but the turmoil of human empires is always accompanied by bloodshed and death. Take Otto's family, for example. When the rebellion against the Child family's rule was quelled, what followed was a merciless purge. The entire family was wiped out, and many innocent people were also implicated. In the end, only Otto, the last remaining member of the family on the very edge, was left, and he accepted a mission that was destined to end, heading to an unknown star system.

After the matter of cutting iron stars is made public, Komi can even imagine how people will try to exonerate Otto's family.

In the tavern, they wouldn't call Otto's family fools who dared to challenge the Childe family, but would praise them as pioneers who sensed the Childe family's betrayal and bravely and fearlessly upheld their loyalty to the Emperor.

The situation will escalate further, and those people whose blood flows throughout the planet will be punished and purged. Their remains will be collected and used as the starting point for the next wave of colonists to build their homes.

Frizzle wanted to save her family, or at least hope to reduce the number of deaths when the building collapsed. So she sought out Komi, hoping that his saintly status could protect the Child family through the storm. In return, she was willing to relinquish control of the Child family.

As for how to transfer power, Komi could only think of a political marriage. Fritz would hold a grand wedding so that Komi could rightfully become the new leader of the Childe family.

Komi believes that if Friss were a man, he would immediately undergo gender reassignment surgery to achieve that.

However, Komi wasn't very interested in Fritz's hidden thoughts between the lines. He had already seen the bloated and sluggish nature of the family when he spent time with Griffin. The Child family was simply the best microcosm of the terrible political system of the human empire.

Griffin: As long as the family's affairs are handled properly, the Childe family's free hands will clench into powerful fists to strike down all enemies!

Ministry of the Interior: As long as I can finish my internal affairs, the Human Empire will wipe out all the aliens and traitors on the border!

The idea was good, but it was impossible to realize. The Childe family was a perfect fit for the environment of the human empire, becoming a mountain of excrement that could not be kicked, changed, or collapsed.

To put it bluntly, Komi even hoped that the entire Childe family would die out, so that he could establish the kingdom he desired in a brand new land.

Carving flowers on shit? Koji wouldn't want to do that unless he had a group of domestic officials at the level of Guilliman.

But thinking about Guilliman's life-altering expression after waking up and reviewing the internal affairs documents of the Human Empire, Komi felt that even if he had such a group of internal affairs officials, he would be worked to death.

Reflecting on the fate of the Childe family inspired Komi to write a new, outrageous short story. He planned to make Killieman and an elderly Ministry of the Interior the main characters and present the story through dialogue.

But Komi thought again that it was going too far to make fun of Guilliman every day. He decided to make fun of the Lion King instead. After sleeping for so long, his temper had improved a lot, hadn't it?

So Komi changed the characters to Lion King Lion, and Azrael.

Azrael: Primarch, a fallen angel wearing a hood, armed with two guns and carrying a greatsword, begs for your forgiveness. He wishes to return to the Empire. How long are you prepared to spend meeting with him?

Ryan: Seventy-two days...

Azrael: Even if he carries your sword, isn't seventy-two days a bit too long...?

Ryan: Oh, I was just wondering how long it would take for the Chaos traitors to launch a full-scale assault and reach the edge of Terra now that the Legions are disbanded and the Great Rift has blocked the galaxy. If I could persuade the Highlords to restore the Space Marine Legions and the Solar Auxiliary Forces, you say...

Azrael: I don't think anything will change, my lord. The Space Marines willing to expand the army and restore the Legion are too extreme; their treatment of civilians makes it hard for me to tell which side they're on. Meanwhile, the more normal Space Marines are all clinging to Guilliman's tattered book.

Ryan: What about the Star Guardians?

Azrael: The Astral Army is indeed the backbone of the Empire, but it's only a small part of it. Some Astral Army soldiers aren't even fully equipped; a laser gun is all they have. And some nobles and high-ranking officers only stay in their barracks during the workdays, spending the rest of their time vacationing in Garden World.

Ryan: So if Chaos attacks, we can only hope they attack those well-equipped and well-trained legions.

Azrael nodded, which was somewhat unacceptable to Lion.

Ryan: So, do a lot of people know about this?

Azrael: If I can know this, then the Chaos army must know it too. The Chaos cultists can spread messages through the warp much faster than the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs can transmit documents.

Ryan: So we can only place the Empire's hopes on the navy's warships...

Azrael: When he delivered it.

Ryan: When he delivers it?

Azrael: If he can use it.

Ryan: If we could... what do you mean by that?

Azrael: Newly built warships typically need to enter the Warp. If the Emperor doesn't protect them, they could easily be swept into the Warp turbulence for hundreds or thousands of years, or even corrupted into enemy ships. The new Executioner is a prime example; you should know this. There are issues like Geller's inadequate coverage and the inclusion of Chaos cultists in the recruited crew. For several years, we haven't been able to produce warships normally. Mars Headquarters was worried that producing too many warships at once would give the enemy a numerical advantage.

Ryan: This is utterly absurd! We should punish Mars headquarters and make them do their job! Can't we just switch to another forging world? We can't have warships only produced on Mars.

Azrael: Oh, we've been replacing them all along. But the problem is that every forged world has these issues, which is why there's a newly forged General's Cannon lying on a barbaric world.

Ryan: General's Cannon? In the Savage World? Why didn't I know about this?

Azrael: Of course you wouldn't know; the Inquisition kept the news under wraps. Only the following year did the savages of the Savage World discover a deep pit had appeared in their world.

Ryan: So we can't even use the General's Cannon?

Azrael: No, no, Primarch, it's just that the newly created ones have problems. Everything else is working fine, like the things created during the 30k era.

Ryan: More than 10,000 years ago?