40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 574 92. Dark Crusade (Nineteen, Belisarius Caul’s Zerg Classroom)

Khalil opened his eyes and saw a mist of steam, high temperature, and boiling. Belisarius Call's huge body was looming among them, and the clicking sound from under his robes was as loud as the rapid rain.

It seemed dangerous, but he himself was manipulating his appendages and making calculations in such a cloud of steam.

The blue light of the holographic projection screen reflected his silhouette in the still continuous steam, which was completely unlike a human being. The multiple moving appendages were one of the main culprits in creating this impression.

Khalil coughed slightly, and the blue light dissipated. Belisarius Call turned around at a speed that was completely inconsistent with his figure, and the steam quickly dissipated under the blow of a strong wind that came from nowhere.

He himself shook his head and put back the prosthetic eye he had removed at some point as if nothing was wrong. Motor oil - or something similar - spread out from the interface between flesh and machinery, making this old face even more terrifying.

Of course, the Great Sage himself knew nothing about this.

He smiled oddly, and as the cold air from the respirator came in spurts, his appendages began to tap against each other, checking each other's status and retracting under his robes. He nodded happily to Khalil.

"The bugs are coming!" Call shouted, raising his arms.

"."

"The Great Sage."

"I said the bugs are coming, my lord."

"I—" Khalil paused for a moment, genuinely confused for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Great Sage Kaul, I don't understand. Is this something worth being happy about?"

"Although he doesn't really believe me, I am indeed advancing this matter seriously. And now, it's time to check the results."

"A little bit of old-fashioned construction, my lord, data isn't always reliable, but as long as it's properly maintained, machinery will never betray you—"

"Please allow me to introduce you to my observation window. In the first few centuries, when I still maintained the habit of self-examination, I would observe the outside world here, but I later went too deep."

"Research on the Zerg." Call replied. "You don't know something, my lord. However, I promised the Honorable Robert Guilliman before I arrived in Sousa that I would come up with a plan that would be effective against the bugs."

Seeing that he couldn't get an answer, Khalil simply started to look at the two screens. They show two ends of a city burning.

Kaul spoke nonchalantly and took out a single golden gear from under his red robe. He wasn't using an appendage to do it, the gear was being held in his own right hand.

Complex mechanical structures swarmed out from under its golden shell, and soon the gear was transformed into a key.

Sousa's local defense forces are rolling over the rubble in their personnel carriers. The work of collecting the bodies has been suspended. Another war has come.
But the enemy did not appear.

The hunched giant sage waved excitedly to Khalil and led him towards the huge mechanical maze again. He walked very quickly, and this time he never had to find his way again.

"Yes, yes, I am here, my lord-" Call replied without looking up. "——Please give me a few more minutes, please? I'm searching my memory. The key I designed is a bit too complicated. I don't have time to waste on solving it."

Khalil frowned and turned to look at other observation screens. He still didn't see any sign of Zerg invasion.

"Of course not in a secular sense, but for me it's certainly cause for celebration. Sosa has been on the fringes of these ravenous creatures for the past nineteen centuries, which has caused a lot of confusion in my research. Big trouble."

Although it had already been mechanized, Khalil still saw something unusual in this action. However, Caul had no intention of explaining it and just started to play with the gear attentively.

Just three minutes later, they arrived at a surveillance array. Thousands of observation screens hanging from the ceiling are filled with scenes of Sosa, from forests and fields to still-burning cities.
Kaul didn't see any movement, and two mechanical arms passed through the dense collection of cables and swept them away. Two screens flew in closely behind, and some kind of anti-gravity device buzzed at the bottom of them. chirping.

"What research?" Khalil asked.

Kaul held it and bent down. The ground cracked, and a silver cylinder slowly rose. Kaul inserted the key into the keyhole on its surface, and then twisted it gently.

Khalil had no choice but to wait. Kaul did not let him down. Just two minutes later, he burst into laughter, and the golden gear in his hand suddenly began to deform.

The great sage smiled and took another step towards the deepest part of the screen jungle. There, a huge screen was slowly lighting up.

"I've put a lot of satellites into Sosa over the years, and they can show me what's outside Sosa when necessary."

Kaul spoke and explained in this way, but he was still smiling strangely. Kalil glanced at him incomprehensibly, but found that Kaul was smiling even happier.

"Of course, out of respect for the Emperor's Scythe and the local lords, I usually do not use these powers that are beyond their allowed range. However, I think they will no longer have any objections to me, a red-robed weirdo. What’s your opinion? Anyway, sir, look here.”

Kaul stood up straight and pointed to the upper left edge of the screen with his right hand. The screen quickly shrunk from the surface of Sosa, who was safe and sound, to the burning void.

Khalil squinted his eyes and saw an indescribable void naval battle.

The Macragge's Glory combined fleet is fighting against the insect swarm's living ship group, which has a biological texture. Their number is difficult to calculate. Even at a rough glance, it is several times that of the combined fleet.

Any general would be overwhelmed when faced with such numbers of adversaries, but the leader at this time was Robert Guilliman.

The living ships of the swarm are being destroyed by continuous volleys one after another. Huge pieces of flesh and carapace float in the dark vacuum, which soon freeze and shine in the gunfire, as if one after another is bleeding. as strange as his eyes.

It seemed like they were at a disadvantage, but the Zerg seemed not to care. Their ships still maintained a uniform slow speed and moved forward, like a huge and discrete piece of meat. No matter how much the ferocious beast of the combined fleet bites, it will never stop.

Moreover, they are by no means unable to fight back.

Armor-piercing spikes, acid shells and other killing techniques that only appear on living creatures are spurting out from the heads of their so-called ships at hundreds of times the size. The attack power is not very powerful, but it is victorious. In large numbers and almost impossible to dodge
The void shield has a limit to what it can withstand. Furthermore, any ships that block the way will be pulled into the same death by their impact ships or fall into the embarrassing situation of engine shutdown.

"Well they don't care about their losses," Call said in a thoughtful tone. "That's true, they can afford it."

His tone suddenly became a little angry.

"According to this speed, if our fleet cannot strike a decisive blow, then they will not suffer any fatal losses at all. Ah, and here, sir." The screen zoomed again, at the edge of the Sousa galaxy. , more Zerg living ships are approaching seemingly slowly.

"It's too numerous to count," the great sage murmured in an angry tone, and the sound of gears began to rotate again.

He lowered his head and pondered, but Khalil felt the ground beneath his feet shaking.

The blue light flashed, and he looked down and found that the fighter servitors he had seen in the darkness were being awakened one after another. The number was endless, and they were getting on the transport vehicle and leaving the interior of Pharos Mountain at a uniform pace. .

"No, no." Kaul suddenly said. "We must prevent them from reaching Sousa's orbit. Once the bugs' spores break through the atmosphere, they will never stop unless they completely occupy the sky. I don't want my servitors to fight a war of attrition with the bugs, sir. "

He looked at Khalil.

"What do you think?" Khalil asked.

"How much do you know about the Zerg?" Call asked, his tone suddenly becoming polite.

Khalil did not delve into the reasons behind this, and just said calmly: "I have read an investigation report, the main subject is the release of Zerg spores, and the evolutionary characteristics they showed during the process."

"Is it the one written by Agina Silas?"

"Yes."

Call began to nod again, continuously, and the oil leaking from the prosthetic eye began to decrease.

"Very good, very good. Although Ajna is very stubborn, she is indeed an excellent investigator. This is a good start for our next topic - in short, now that you already know something about them, then I’ll get to the point quickly.”

"I won't mention the types and differences of bugs. Anyway, they are fine. I believe that even the Tyrant Lord of the Hive Mind is probably not a threat to you."

"What is the Tyrant Lord of the Hive Mind?" Khalil asked and interrupted. The word Caul said was a coined word, difficult to pronounce and extremely long.

"It's just a big, strong, fast and smart bug," Call said. "They are different from most insects in that they are very good at learning and countering our resistance methods, but this is not the point. After all, the real threat of the insect swarm lies in their numbers."

"I think even you would be troubled if you were surrounded by things like knife bugs and gun bugs. So, here's the point."

Kaul suddenly leaned down and told Khalil solemnly and seriously: "Most bugs do not have self-awareness in essence. They are just a combination of weapons and tools. What really controls them is a collective consciousness. We will It’s called the Hive Mind.”

"It has no entity and cannot come to the battlefield in person, but it possesses extremely powerful psychic power, far exceeding our psykers, and can even distort the surrounding subspace."

"It is powerful enough to prevent demons from coming, make ships sailing in the warp astray, make people suffer, bewilder and fall into nightmares, and psykers will fall into even worse situations."

"According to research, the Hive Mind will control all bugs through some synaptic organisms - node organisms. That is to say, although it does not exist, it is everywhere. It builds a big network , so that it can see everything happening on the battlefield and respond quickly."

"You want me to deal with it." Khalil remembered his explanation, then ignored it all, and gave this conclusion very calmly.

"."

Kaur was silent and didn't speak for more than ten seconds. His face was full of shock and confusion, but he soon returned to normal and nodded suddenly.

"Yes, yes. This is a feasible solution. The fundamental purpose of the Hive Mind is to devour biomass. All its actions are for this purpose, so we can use you to let it evaluate."

The more he talked, the more excited he became, and the more he talked, the more excited he became. He began to move back and forth, and finally burst into laughter.

"Ha! Sir, you obviously have some kind of intuitive talent in research! This is a good idea! If the Hive Mind feels that this is a loss-making business and the biomass recovered cannot be compared with what was paid, then it will naturally Will retreat!"

"That's not what I meant," Khalil said. "My idea was to just kill it."

Call was silent again, his huge body beginning to tremble, his parts buzzing under his robes. One second, two seconds, three seconds, he and Khalil kept looking at each other.
Then, the great sage finally realized that this gentleman might be serious.

The remaining half of his face suddenly showed a wave of anger.

"But it's a disembodied thing!" Call yelled, waving his appendages and looking devastated.

"Did you listen to my explanation?! It doesn't exist, it is a swarm of insects! If you want to kill it, you must kill all the insects in this fleet. This is simply impossible!"

"I didn't say I was going to kill all the bugs, I just said I was going to kill it or, as you say, make it quit."

Kaur laughed angrily and asked, "So, how do you do this?"

"It's very simple -" Khalil smiled at him, and there was even a bit of satisfaction in this smile. "—I have a plan."

Call looked at him, gears turning, expression numb, and after a few seconds he asked, "What's the plan, my lord?"

"You'll know." Khalil said lightly, turned and left.

The Great Sage stretched out all his appendages angrily and rushed towards his workbench at high speed. Ten seconds later, as the ground shook, the heavily armed Belisarius Caul followed him like a heavy armored vehicle. Khalil.

He charged and roared: "I'm going to report you to Robert Guilliman!"

"Report me for what?" Khalil asked.

"reckless!"

Khalil laughed.

(End of this chapter)