Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

Azrael: Yes, they underwent extensive testing and real-world trials. Newly built weapons can't be tested as much.

Ryan: Why?

Azrael: Primarch, if the Chaos army invades, the new weapons may be corrupted before they are even fully tested.

Llane: Azrael, is there anything about the Empire's military that I don't know?

Azrael: I don't know, Primarch, I don't know what you don't know. But if you want to gather opinions, I suggest you summon General Caul the Forge, who holds views that differ somewhat from those of the Mechanicus priests.

Ryan: I want to see him now.

Azrael: Uh, maybe meeting later is a wise choice. It's best not to let Lord Guilliman know; he'll be angry if he finds out you secretly met with Caul, and he doesn't consider Caul one of our people.

Ryan: But wasn't his status as a forging general granted by Guilliman?

Azrael: This cannot mend his broken mind. Lord Guilliman thinks that Caul is more like a well-disguised abomination than a human being.

When the Supreme Inquisitor of the Inquisition learned that Ryan wanted to talk to Caul, he decided to discuss the human empire's defense policy with Ryan.

High Inquisitor: Primarch, what do you think is the purpose of our human empire's defense policy?

Ryan: Nature is there to protect humanity.

High Inquisitor: No, Primarch. It's to convince the citizens of the Empire that they are protected.

Ryan: You mean to let Chaos think that?

The Supreme Inquisitor: It's either Chaos or the citizens of the Empire themselves. Chaos knows we haven't protected the citizens of the Empire. All of this is so that our innocent and naive citizens can move peacefully through buildings and factories, instead of going mad after learning the truth about Chaos. The purpose of defense policy is to make them feel safe so they can better serve the human Empire...

Komi was writing jokes about the human empire with a smile when there was a knock on his door.

Komi saw Ezekiel standing at the door with a livid face on the monitor. He wondered if something had gone wrong again, but when he looked down, he saw that Ezekiel was holding several pages of a book that he recognized very well.

Those were pages from "A Collection of Stories of Rebellion"...

Oh no... What did Ezekiel see?

Koji's smile vanished, replaced by an awkward unease. He even considered keeping Ezekiel out of the room, but the suppressed psychic voice in his voice made him realize he had no choice.

"Otto...I need an explanation from you!"

Chapter 574: What if you had a Space Marine "friend"?

When did the page fall off? What did Ezekiel see? The arrangement of the Primarchs? The Machine Soul Muzan? Or the naked, dark history of the Imperial Guard and the Empress with a female face?

Komi flipped through the "Collection of Stories Against Heaven" in his hands, trying to determine what the missing pages were. He didn't want to answer Ezekiel's question without any preparation.

"Oh...so that's it." With the reminder from the preceding and following content, Komi remembered the missing part in the middle. He breathed a sigh of relief; he could still explain these parts even if he had to bite the bullet.

He sensed Ezekiel fiddling with a psionic cannon at the door, and immediately pressed a button on the table to let him in.

Before Ezekiel could question him, Koji put on a mysterious air, crossed his hands on his chin, leaned forward, and rested his elbows on the table. He even deliberately dimmed the lights in the room to cast large shadows on his face.

Now, all Komi needs to do is put on some light-up glasses to cosplay Gendo Ikari.

"Ezekiel, don't you understand yet...?"

Komi's words, tinged with a sense of helplessness towards the Fool, left the furious Ezekiel momentarily speechless. He stood frozen in front of the table for a moment, then gritted his teeth, slammed the pages of his book on the table, and questioned Komi.

"I truly don't understand! Otto, what you've written is an insult to us Dark Angels!"

Komi glanced at it and saw a drawing of a dark angel on the paper that Ezekiel had crumpled up and then flattened. Next to the drawing were a few words he had written.

If you have a dark angel friend.

Advantages: If you can gain the Dark Angel's approval, he will invite you to go hunting together after the battle, and the prey will mainly be local species that survived the war.

They value honor and are proficient in swordsmanship. They will solemnly teach you techniques to ensure your survival in the dark universe. They also possess a wide variety of torture methods, so numerous they will leave you in awe.

In most cases, they are mentally sound and can understand the difference between mortals and Space Marines, whereas Space Marines from other chapters would only see mortals as a burden.

Weaknesses: He is mentally sound only if you don't try to investigate his hidden secrets. When you become curious about what's behind him, he will not hesitate to angrily rebuke you. When you try to get to the bottom of things, he will coldly kill you as if you had never met.

He is adept at hiding his expressions and inner thoughts. Sometimes, looking at his expressionless face, you might even suspect that he is a space ghost in human skin.

Although he can understand ordinary people, his empathy is shockingly low. Unless you say it directly, he will never understand your feelings and needs correctly.

If only these were written, Ezekiel might have just wanted to know what was going on with the points about secrets in the flaws, but the fatal thing is that Komi wrote these things not for him, but for the Masked Dancer and Slaanesh behind him.

Therefore, Komi deliberately used obscure words in Imperial Gothic language for personal pronouns and the word "friend," which have a rather vague definition and can refer to men, women, or even other species, in order to make the masked dancer show a meaningful smile when browsing.

The masked dancer picked it up and chuckled wickedly: "Are you implying that a Space Marine appears in the Empire as a woman and becomes someone's lover? That's quite novel. Even the fallen son of the Emperor wouldn't have such a bold idea."

Koji placed his hands on his thighs, looking completely oblivious: "I don't know. Tsengki made me write this. I'm just a writer."

But who is Ezekiel? He is the chief think tank of the Dark Angels Chapter, far superior to those "illiterate" Space Marines who only know about war. He immediately saw the ambiguity in these words and regarded them as terrible evidence that the corruption of Slaanesh was about to spread.

Seeing Koken staring at the paper on the table for a long time without saying a word, Ezekiel also felt a sense of despair. He couldn't understand when the saint Otto had been infected with the incurable corruption of chaos.

He silently gripped the hilt of his power sword at his waist, holding back his psionic communication plea for help, waiting for Komi to reveal his dirty and evil truth.

Ezekiel's murderous intent was like frost, and Koji couldn't help but notice it, but he remained calm, believing that he had a chance to make Ezekiel regard the contents of the paper as harmless.

“Alas… Ezekiel.” Komi’s voice was heavy and weathered. If it were shrouded in golden light, it would surely deceive even the most devout members of the state religion. “These things are not as dirty and filthy as you think. They are just a small piece of what I glimpsed in the Emperor’s shattered consciousness when we were in communion.”

"The Emperor?" Ezekiel was taken aback. It was rare to hear the Emperor's name from Komi, the number one propagandist of the Savior. However, he had no other questions about it. After all, according to Komi's theory, the Savior was only one aspect of the Emperor, a small part of his great will.

Ezekiel's murderous intent subsided somewhat; it seemed he wanted to hear why these things on the paper could be related to the emperor.

Koji breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Ezekiel's willingness to listen to his nonsense must have something to do with the curse on him. If it were an ordinary person, they would definitely have drawn their swords and chopped off your head without saying a word when they heard you throwing mud at the emperor.

"Ezekiel, have you ever thought about a peaceful world?"

Ezekiel was taken aback; he had never considered these things. His and his brothers' lives were filled with war; they were either engaged in war or on their way to war. The only time a Space Marine could rest was when death came.

But not having thought about it doesn't mean he wouldn't think about it. Ezekiel immediately thought of those worlds that had been saved by the dark angels, where once prosperous cities had been turned into hell on earth by aliens and traitors, and the air was filled with the stench of rotting corpses and the acrid smell of burning.

They completed their mission and left hastily; the Dark Angels were only responsible for winning the war, and rebuilding the planet was not their job.

Ezekiel remembered being young and naive at the time, and he posed a question to his mentor: "This world still belongs to the human empire, but it is destined to fall into a long civil war due to the extremely harsh environment and insufficient resources. As angels of the empire, shouldn't we try to prevent the subsequent tragedy from happening?"

The instructor didn't answer him, but just glanced at him like he was an idiot, then patted him on the back and led him to the training field.

As he experienced more, Ezekiel understood why his mentor looked at him that way. The threats to the human empire were simply too numerous, one after another, in droves. Every second, hundreds and thousands of planets were plunged into peril, and hundreds and thousands more returned to the empire's embrace.

The flames of war raged eternally across the human empire's territory. The Dark Angels and the rest of the Space Marines did their utmost, advancing wave after wave, but could only manage to prevent the fires from spreading to the point of engulfing entire star sectors and regions. Completely extinguishing the fires was an impossible task.

Chapter 575: Ezekiel suddenly became lame.

For a time, Ezekiel patrolled the two star systems with the warband. When they dealt with the rebellion in sector A, unrest broke out in sector B. When they quelled the unrest in sector B, the flames of rebellion in sector A were reignited.

The chapters were so busy that they were only able to spare time for other matters after other chapters moved into the two sectors.

Upon reflection, Ezekiel suddenly realized that he seemed to have never truly seen what peace looked like. The peace that lasted for a year, two years, ten years, or a hundred years was, in his eyes, merely a vacuum period before the next apocalyptic war, a preparatory stage for the aliens and chaos to sharpen their blood-soaked daggers.

Ezekiel replied sadly, “Peace is too much of a luxury; none of us will live to see the war end.”

“Not seeing it now doesn’t mean we should give up our hopes for a peaceful world,” Komi said softly, guiding Ezekiel to relax his thoughts. “The Emperor thought about what it would be like for the human empire to enter a peaceful world. He not only thought about how mortals would live, but also left a piece of land for you Space Marines.”

"us?"

Ezekiel's questioning tone made Komi laugh. "What? Do you think the peace of the Imperium of Man depends on the death of the last Space Marine?"

"No, no, no... I just..."

Ezekiel denied it somewhat hastily, his gaze once again falling on the paper on the table, but this time his thoughts were quite different from when he stood at the door.

If the Emperor envisioned that Space Marines could also enjoy a peaceful life, then was the content of this document intended as a guide to make it easier for Imperial citizens to accept them as Space Marines?

It can only be said that there are as many Hamlets as there are people. Although Ezekiel had witnessed more horrific tragedies than the entire neighborhood of commoners combined, he couldn't help but think of the positive side whenever his revered emperor was mentioned.

If a masked dancer were to comment on this, he would definitely say something like, "The Space Marine's size is too big, the force is too strong, and mortals can't handle it."

Seeing Ezekiel's thoughtful expression, Koji knew he had probably fooled him this time. So he pressed on and told Ezekiel that the human empire the emperor hoped for would be a progressive regime full of rationality, freedom, and equality, where no aliens could threaten human survival and prosperity, and even the omnipresent chaos had been completely sealed away.

"In his envisioned kingdom, Space Marines would lay down their weapons and use their own hands to transform war-torn worlds into what they desired."

Ezekiel yearned for what he would do if he could retire from the military and return to his hometown. With the blood of the Lion King Lion Llane flowing through his veins, he naturally thought of lush forests. He wanted to build a hunting lodge in the woods, use simple bows and crossbows and wooden traps to catch prey, and then enjoy the pleasure of skinning them whole with a knife.

Ezekiel closed his eyes. He was no longer angry with Komi; instead, he felt ashamed for misunderstanding Komi.

“I am sorry, Saint Otto, I acted impulsively. I used my mundane and base thoughts to speculate about everything described on this paper, instead of interpreting its contents from a more sublime perspective.”

Koji waved his hand, indicating that he didn't mind Ezekiel's misunderstanding; he was just giving himself a heads-up about the next time he lost a page.

Komi put away his smile and put on a serious and melancholy look. He said, "Ezekiel, communicating with the Emperor's broken thoughts is not a simple matter. Even if I receive his gaze and accept many revelations from him, I still need to guess the meaning of those illusions in his vast and broken sea of ​​thoughts. Sometimes the Emperor tells me about the future, sometimes he tells me about bizarre tragedies, and sometimes I can't even be sure what the things I record actually mean."

As he spoke, Komi took out the "Stories of Rebellion" hidden under the table. This book, sealed in a sacred box, was quite heavy and thick; it could definitely smash an orc's skull if picked up.

Ezekiel held his breath. This wasn't the first time he had seen the casket containing the book. It was usually hanging on Komi's waist by a chain. But back then, Ezekiel had only thought that it contained a book of the Emperor's Word, which was regarded as a classic by the state religion.

"A Collection of Stories That defy fate" is merely Komi's name for this book; it's not explicitly written on the cover. Therefore, what content Komi wants to show Ezekiel depends entirely on which pages he chooses to open.

Komi said, "The Emperor's concern and understanding of your temperament goes beyond what you're holding. Look at these."

Ezekiel looked at the pages that Koken had opened. On them were Ultramarines in blue armor, Imperial Fists in yellow armor, Blood Angels in red armor... almost every original chapter loyal to the Empire was written on them.

"The Imperial Fist is simple, unpretentious, disciplined, and healthy. Because of their Dornish blood, they are born with a solemn and unsmiling demeanor. He is a master of defense and a heavy-handed sledgehammer; you can entrust your back to him." Ezekiel recounted the Imperial Fist's virtues on paper, then spoke of their weaknesses, "He can't lie; he basically says what he thinks. His emotional intelligence is so low that even a brainless servant would lament his fate. He won't like frivolous friends; instead, he'll impose his strict and disciplined lifestyle on you, and he's as solid as a rock."

Ezekiel nodded. All the Imperial Fists he had ever seen were indeed like this. But there was still one question he didn't quite understand. He looked at the pros and cons of being friends with the Ultramarines and asked, "The Imperial Fists have an extremely high pain tolerance. Why is that? Is it because of the Primarch's blood?"

"Uh...maybe." Komi wrote this because he was thinking about the Gloves of Pain in the Imperial Fist's inventory. When an Imperial Fist member was feeling too depressed, they would use this equipment to generate a huge amount of pain to calm themselves down. Strictly speaking, this tradition has a lot to do with Primarch Dorne. He was the first to start it, and then the Imperial Fist members followed suit. It's similar to driving nails into Angron's head, and then driving nails into the entire World Eater Legion.

Of course, what kind of fun this level of pain tolerance would hold for a masked dancer is something Komi doesn't know...

After seeing everything that Komi showed him, Ezekiel stood up straight and bowed. "I understand, Saint Otto. I have presumptuously peeked into these sacred contents. Please punish me."

“Punishment?” Gu Jian shook his head and smiled. “The fact that you can see these things means that this is the Emperor’s will, an arrangement of fate. Let’s just keep this as a little secret between us.”

"Secret?" Upon hearing this word, Ezekiel immediately perked up. He thought of the fallen angels that the dark angels were trying to kill, and for a moment he suddenly wanted to ask Komi if he knew about this situation.

Perhaps the emperor's revelations can help us?

But then a great distrust filled his mind, and he remembered the warning from Chapter Master Azrael.

“We must not let the Empire know about the Fallen Angels. Nearly half of the Dark Angels chapters have fallen to the side of Chaos. This news will make the Empire doubt our loyalty! We must not let this happen.”

Ezekiel hesitated for a moment and then shut his mouth. Finally, he looked at Komi's outstretched little finger with some confusion.

What do you mean by that?

"The Emperor told me about an ancient oath tradition: make a pinky promise, and our oath of secrecy is established."

Ezekiel was pleased to have learned this little bit of knowledge. He hooked his little finger with Komi's, shook it for a moment, and then asked, "Is that all?"