Emperor's Bane

Chapter 18 Dawn Redemption ([-])
[It's like a string of fireworks falling into a pond. 】

This was the first time Morgan had actually seen a battleship firing in the void.

Although she has joined the No.15 Astartes Legion for almost a year, the silver-haired female officer has never experienced a real war, and she has never even seen the scene where Magnus's flagship: the Ten Thousand Radiance opened fire.

After all, although the Great Crusade sounds brilliant, as if it will set off raging wars in the Milky Way and the Three Thousand Blood Nation every moment, it is actually far from the case.

Most fleets spend most of their time traveling, exploring, and transporting. After all, after thousands of years of darkness in the age of strife, countless worlds in the galaxy have been reduced to ruins and wilderness. Only the ruins of civilization from more than a dozen centuries ago, or the dark lairs set up by pirates, it is meaningless for the empire to rule these wastelands. They must hurry up and make these worlds become empires capable of blood transfusion for the Great Crusade territory.

In the Great Void, the fleets loyal to the Emperor increased every moment, until at this point in time, when the Great Crusade had been going on for over 60 years, the Imperial expeditionary fleet might have numbered in the tens of thousands, but most of them But it is performing tasks such as colonization, exploration, persuading surrender, transporting supplies, and defending newly established colonies.

Only the most elite armed fleets will sail to completely unknown territories to destroy those alien countries, or to recover those human pocket empires that still maintain their own independence, and the conquest of the latter is often not necessary. By force, for as the Emperor of Man said:

[When a world is burning in the flames of the Great Crusade, there are hundreds of human worlds struggling under the claws of the vicious universe and aliens, waiting for the gospel from the hometown of mankind. 】

For now, this is indeed a wise saying.

Perhaps the empire of mankind is engaged in thousands of battles every minute of every day, but when the perspective is enlarged to the entire galaxy, these smokes are insignificant, and more in the Great Crusade are pioneering, persuading surrender, merging, Alliances, coercion, and convincing, and even at certain times, the empire will conduct some compromises that go against its ideas.

Only in the face of aliens and those who have crossed the border, the edge of the empire will be merciless, even spending a lot of time and energy to mobilize the angel of death.

After all, the Emperor only has 200 Custodians, [-] Legions Astartes, a disgruntled Mechanicus, and numerous auxiliaries that are insufficient due to productivity and transportation. With these forces alone, if every step is How can the entire galaxy be conquered in just [-] years if there is a war?
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"I never thought that our shells would fall on the heads of the people of the empire. This is like a betrayal."

"I prefer to call it a sacrifice, Ahriman, a sacrifice, a necessary price."

Phryx's voice carried the contempt of the Iron Warriors: contempt for life, contempt for mortals, contempt for oneself.

After all, they consider themselves steel, and in any great military empire, a piece of steel is not worth cherishing too much.

"Of course we can let them go, let them go, let them live, and then? In a few years, we will have to kill more people, and cause more losses because of our momentary weakness. "

"I just think that we have no reason to kill them, Phryx, we, as soldiers of the Emperor, from the moment we were born, we have no right to kill any of the Emperor's people."

"But we have no right to let them survive."

"I know, but it's murder."

"No, it's not murder. It's kindness. The Emperor's kindness. After all, this galaxy is so absurd that even cold death is a luxury that requires a special gift."

"...I never thought that an Iron Warrior would have the talent of a poet?"

"That's because you've never really observed it."

"Observe what? Your fortress? Or the trenches you dug?"

"You see, it's this kind of thinking. You only see the most superficial things, you only see the bricks and stones of the fortress and the soil of the trenches, but you never think about what we have invested in these things."

"You have never thought about the simplification of space and the structure of the fortress, and you have never observed the mutual achievements of the distribution of trenches and the surrounding environment. You only see them in themselves, and then bring your inherent thinking into it."

The Iron Warrior's voice was deliberately imitating his genetic father Perturabo. He deliberately fabricated the mixture of coldness, rationality, intelligence and passion, but he couldn't imitate it very much. In the end, he simply became someone A preaching voice with a pretentious accent.

Therefore, when Ahriman turned around with a slightly disdainful gaze, the fearless Iron Warrior could only turn his head in embarrassment, and then he found that Morgan was also looking at him at the other end.

There was no contempt in Morgan's eyes.

But there are worse things than contempt.

The son of Perturabo simply lowered his head and stopped looking at either side. This behavior succeeded in making Ahriman laugh.

As Qianzi patted the Iron Warrior on the shoulder in a friendly manner, their conversation started again.

Everything seems so harmonious.

So weird.

Looking at the scene in front of her, Morgan thought so.

Different from Perturabo's flagship [Iron Blood], the [Perseverance] under their feet, which has the function of receiving guests, is equipped with large floor-to-ceiling portholes, allowing the darkness in the void to invade the corridors of the ship, thus creating a Incredible sight.

But now in front of Morgan's eyes is an absurd scene:

The void is dark and pure black, embellished from [nature], the sum of the most complex pigments that cannot be distinguished by human vision, it seems to emit infinite light, and it seems to be able to transform all shiny objects Devouring everything, in this perfect contradiction, its kingdom lightly falls into the corridor of the ship through the huge porthole.

The corridor is bright and spacious, and it is the essence of human civilization. It is composed of steel, brackets, lights and the most standard numbers. It is complex and simple, soft and cold. It seems to be surrounded by Swallowed by the void separated by a wall, it seems to completely block it from the outside. Through the porthole, you can even see the rays composed of the strong light of the lighting lamp, slowly disappearing at the end of the void.

In this way, the light of machinery and nature mixed before her eyes. They were distinct, but they were mixed together in the most real way, distorted into a ball of the most holy, darkest, clearest, and most blurred canvas.

And on this canvas, walk the death angels of the two emperors, and countless mortals who are about to fall into hell.

On the left, are Ahriman and Phryx, they are talking, smiling, and coming out of the thinnest guilt and understanding. Of course, they will not feel guilty for these deaths for too long, after all, they have witnessed too much. Many deaths and killings, most of which were done by their own hands with their swords raised.

If every life needs to be mourned, then every Emperor's Angel of Death will probably need to be mourned until the end of time.

And on the other side, at the end of Morgan's vision, was a ship, a civilian ship from the Dawn Star, which was being betrayed, shot down, overturned, and killed.

Morgan could feel, feel that the fragments and components of the ship were shattering, and were drifting wantonly along with the gravity-free void environment. There were probably tens of thousands of refugees from Dawn Star on it, and she could feel them Their crying, their wailing, their cursing, their disbelief and panic, all of them passed through the boundary of space, and appeared so clearly in her spiritual world.

Too much clarity.

She saw Ahriman and Phryx laughing, shoulder to shoulder like real brothers, patting each other's shoulder armor, pistol slung on the other side.

She heard the cries of mortals, the cries of wives looking for their husbands, the sighs of friends saying goodbye to each other, and the mournful whispers of mothers holding their children tightly in their arms.

She saw the shaking of the power armor, two Astartes fisting each other, discussing each other's powers, debating the merits of steel and psychic power.

She heard the explosion of bullets, and heard the sharp bullets piercing through the weak temples, and then the silent body fell heavily on the ground, disappearing in the extremely chaotic shouts.

She saw them disappear at the end of the corridor, saw them say goodbye to her, their huge boots leaving no footprints on the steel floor.

She heard the disappearance of the sound, from crying, to howling, from explosion, to fragmentation, from collapse, to dead silence, and finally everything disappeared in the eternal tranquility.

She sees it all, she hears it all: light, darkness, neatness, chaos, laughing, weeping, praising, cursing...

Everything finally came down to one point: a huge steel tomb exploded completely in the void, it didn’t make a sound, only a faint flash of light flickered on the walls and portholes of the corridor, making Aspen There was a long moment in the reflection of Tate's departure.

finally.

She turned her head.

Those mortals are dead.

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"Ms. Morgan, please come to the command room."

【……OK. 】

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It is said to be the command room, but in fact, to a certain extent, this is also the exhibition hall of Perturabo's works. The Lord of Steel used the "Resolution" as a carrier of a little vanity that he did not want to reveal easily. In the wide over-the-head bridge, there are works that are perfect enough to amaze outsiders in Perturabo's eyes.

Morgan's journey was unimpeded, she moved forward in the shadow of those tall Astartes, and couldn't help but miss her original appearance: In order to better adapt to her mortal identity, she has been suppressing her too tall body. figure.

In the end, she came to the huge iron gate. Morgan could see that the automated facility was distinguishing who came, and her profile picture and information were obviously the latest among all those who were allowed to enter by herself, but she I also found an interesting problem: in the column that allowed her to visit, the name of Magnus, who was her direct supervisor, was not filled in.

It was Perturabo's own handwriting.

She thought of something, and the door had already opened, Morgan narrowed her eyes and adjusted her thoughts.

Behind the gate, naturally, is…

"What are you doing! Perturabo!"

"As you can see, doing the right thing."

"If what you say is true is to bring this thing before me, to please me, and to destroy it... Perturabo, my brother, I hate to say it, but it is an atrocity, a cruel Outrage!"

"If it's not cruel enough, what could possibly make you fondly remember, Magnus?"

"You know what the Emperor said, Magnus, our father knew a lot more than we do. He saw farther and deeper than we do, if even he thought there were places in what is called [the Warp] If he doesn’t dare to look at it, then we have to accept that.”

"Yes, but! No need! This way!"

"Before you lamented to me the ignorance of human beings, thinking that they have desecrated countless arts, now, let's see what you are doing, Perturabo!"

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The room shook, the air trembled, and the Primarch roared.

Morgan blinked.

【…】

For some reason, she seemed to, probably, possibly...

Not surprised at all.

(End of this chapter)