40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 597 115. Dark Expedition (Thirty-Five)

Following closely behind the Primarch, Dante walked into the main bridge of the Red Tear.

The splendor and majesty before the departure had been replaced by other things at this moment. Carefully selected decorations such as flags, tapestries and silks were torn down one by one from the dome covered with pearls and agates. The communication enhancement device was placed at the far left end of the dome by the priests of the Mechanicus without any regard for aesthetics.

According to their calculations, this is the best angle. As for the extent to which the harmonious beauty of the dome will be damaged, it is not their concern.

Compared to this matter, they wanted to convince the captain of the Red Tear, Ms. Letala, to agree to their drastic transformation plan.

After Sanguinius made it clear that he didn't care what happened to the Red Tear's main bridge, this was the only person they needed to convince.

The female captain wanted to preserve the Red Tear's ten thousand year tradition, but she could not ignore the statistical advantages of the latest Thinkers, so she agreed to let the priests replace the Thinker array on the far right of the bridge.

After the old huge machinery was removed, the new array occupied less than one-third of the original area. Such a huge improvement made the crew overjoyed - finally there was a place to avoid the cables and pass quickly!
But their joy did not last long, because this place was soon chosen as a temporary military meeting and discussion venue.

The star chart table, ship projector, and long-distance communication were placed in order. It was well organized, but it seemed a little strange. After all, it was reasonable to have a conference room to take on this responsibility.

But things are different now.

What's the difference?

The answer is to be found in three Astartes who are clearly not Blood Angels.

They were gathered around the temporary round table, discussing something. Dante looked at them and then looked away. Similar discussions - or arguments - had taken place many times in the past few days, and everyone was stubborn and had no way of being convinced by the other party.

It's not just personality factors that are at work, there are some deeper things that are affecting them
Dante had no intention of commenting, but he was too lazy to join in. However, Sanguinius suddenly stopped.

"Why don't you communicate with them, Dante?" the archangel asked in a low voice, seemingly curious.

"."

"My son?"

"I just felt that." Dante paused. "It's not necessary, sir."

"Really? I want to hear your opinion—" Sanguinius smiled and shook his head, emphasizing it. "—complete."

Dante nodded helplessly and began to sort out his words. He tried his best to make his words sound gentle, but found that he simply couldn't do it.

The bottom line is, what he has to say is deeply offensive and extremely disrespectful.

"I don't think the outcome of their discussion will be different because of my joining. Malakin Foros wants the Weepers to be the vanguard, and so does Centor Joe, as well as Gabriel Seth."

He shook his head, omitted the second half of the sentence, and then continued: "I understand their pursuit of honor, Primarch, but, with all due respect, in my opinion, there is another reason why they are so obsessed with the status of Vanguard - they want your recognition."

Sanguinius smiled and said, "And you?"

Dante was startled.

"What about you, my son?" the archangel asked, lowering his head. "Do you also want my approval? Well, let's not talk about whether or not, but your words just now are full of leeway."

"I have to say, you've been around me too long, long enough to even think that wanting my approval is a bad thing. What? Do you think their motives for joining the battle are somewhat impure, and therefore they are not worthy of being your brothers?"

The Blood Angels' Chapter Master could not utter a word of rebuttal. He wanted to refute, but he did not know where to start. His fingers trembled slightly, and the steel collided with each other, making a light knocking sound.

Sanguinius looked at him sternly, then raised his hand and pointed at the round table.

"Now go over there and join your brothers in their discussion. You have never participated in a single discussion since we sailed here. People who don't know you might think you are my guard, not the Chapter Master!"

The angel strode away from the spot after he finished speaking. Three strong mortals walked towards him, holding his sword and leaving the main bridge. The door closed again, the auspicious instrument ticked, and the scene outside the porthole was getting darker and darker.
Dante took a deep breath and walked towards the round table.

"Ah, look who's coming," a voice said, deep and rich, making people want to tense their muscles involuntarily, as if they were facing a dangerous beast.
Dante looked at the man who was speaking. The burly giant was staring at him with ill intent. His face was angular, and his hair was very short, suitable for a warrior, almost bald.

Seeing Dante looking at him, he even gave a provocative smile.

"Isn't this Captain Dante's guard?" Gabriel Seth said.

He wanted to continue laughing, but somehow his jaw tightened and his teeth clenched. A dark anger flashed across his face, forcing his tone to drop again, like a growl.

"Are you finally willing to condescend to talk to us three beggars?"

"Don't say that, Gabriel." Malakin Foros of the Weepers frowned and stopped him. "You are going too far."

"Overdoing it? He didn't even bother to look us in the eye! Who was the one who overdosed it? The joint operations of four chapters, the joint actions of more than fifty warships, and in the end, the commander of our great mother chapter was unwilling to even attend a meeting?"

Blood Knight's Sentor Joe sighed and knocked on the round table helplessly.

"Guys? Please, get back to the subject, okay? We have work to do. We have to figure out what that psychic signal is all about."

As he spoke, there was obvious impatience on his pale face.

"Logically, there should be patrol ships and outposts of the Ultramarines at the border between the Empire and the Five Hundred Worlds, or at least some sub-groups deployed. However, until now, we haven't seen any Imperial ships other than ours, and even the damn Eldar pirates are nowhere to be seen."

"This group of dead survivors should be quite common in the Ultramarine. I have read the materials provided by the Military Affairs Department. It says that the five hundred worlds are suffering from the aliens. Orcs and insects are secondary. The real problem is the slave-hunting teams of the Dark Eldar. They always take advantage of the gap after a war to attack our cousins."

He snorted coldly and commented: "It's a despicable act. They deserve this."

Dante said nothing, enduring Gabriel Seth's sarcasm, Malakin Foros' frown, and Centor Joe's complete disregard. He just walked silently to the round table, stretched out his right hand, and summoned the star map.

He zoomed in on their current location, then checked the settings to hide all asteroid belts, highlighted the twenty-seven nearby planets marked as inhabited, and then uploaded the data to the new Thinker array not far away.

Soon, they used the detailed information provided by the Military Affairs Department to display a series of names. Those were the "reserve companies" of the Ultramarines, a total of twelve, with a conservative estimate of about 1,200 people. Such a force is more than enough to guard this place.
However, it is also true that the angel fleet did not receive a reply signal - no, in fact, it did receive it, but it was not an ordinary signal, but a psychic signal that was difficult to decipher.

Captured two Terran hours ago, it is now being decrypted by the Blood Angels Librarian Calistarius, but the full results are yet to be determined.

"Three possibilities." Dante said calmly.

"First, they all met with an accident, so they were not patrolling as usual, and they did not respond to our communication signals that were obviously within the detection range. Second, they were engaged in a war, so they had no time to care about other things. Third, we encountered the threat of Chaos, or they...so the signal was intercepted and could not be sent normally."

"So you can talk." Gabriel Seth said coldly.

Dante nodded, but still did not formally communicate with him verbally, and even lacked eye contact. Malakin, who was closest to the Flesh Tearers Chapter Leader, was extremely sensitive to the change in atmosphere, so he quickly spoke.

"But, Master Dante—"

"—just Dante, we are brothers." said the Blood Angel.

For some reason, he lowered his head, as if apologetically.

Malakin noted this and continued, "That psychic signal, that's the point. It doesn't make sense for it to be here. No astropath on any ship in the fleet is allowed to use their powers right before leaving the Astronomican, but it just happened to be transmitted to their minds."

"And there are no exceptions." The Blood Knight sighed.

He folded his hands with a grunt, and the sheathed sword at his waist swayed.

This angel son, who is famous for his superb swordsmanship, does not seem to like the reliable device of the weapon belt. Or perhaps this has something to do with the wild world he was born in.
In short, his sword was tied to his waist with a leather belt, and the scabbard was also special, made of a pitch-black animal skin with clearly layered scales on the surface, shining with a metallic silver light.

Dante glanced at the sword, his eyes running over its plain handle, and said, "I am sure Calistarius will be able to give us an answer soon."

"A think tank?" Seth pointed out mercilessly.

"The one with the greatest potential," Dante corrected. "Extraordinarily talented, and very cautious."

"So? He's the director of the think tank?"

"Not yet. Our position has become vacant, but he will be the next one soon," said Dante.

He seemed to have too much patience. After all, Seth's questioning was extremely provocative. The two chapter leaders on the side looked at each other at the same time, and each saw what he wanted to say in the other's eyes.

'If it were me'

Seth took a sudden deep breath.

"Is he qualified?" the Flesh Tearer asked in a rough voice. He still sounded rude, but his tone had softened.

This is truly commendable for a man like him who has a reputation as a violent person and is recognized as the inheritor of the spirit of the first Flesh Tearer, Nasir Amit.

Dante smiled a little, nodded, and said, "Of course he did, Gabriel. I saw it clearly, just as you and my captain saw something in us when we were young."

"I wasn't even born when you were young," Gabriel Seth said, as if he was laughing, or maybe he was roaring.

Two crew members who were carrying documents passing behind them were looking at the back of this burly giant in fear, and at the same time quickened their pace. It seemed that they were worried that he would do something bloody on the Red Tear, the flagship of Sanguinius.
Dante's insight allowed him to discover this, and he couldn't help but frown - it seems that the world still has a deep misunderstanding of the Flesh Tearers. There is no way around it, they have perfectly inherited the violent part of Angel Blood.

There are many other warbands similar to them, such as a Blood Knight standing next to them. He and his brothers also prefer close combat when fighting, and they go one step further than the Flesh Tearers. They don't even like to use heavy vehicles for joint attacks.

In Dante's view, this is a bad habit, but ugly in a cute way. After all, violence can always play a great role in some places.

As he thought about these things, two seconds of time passed quietly in the outside world. His frown and silence fell into Gabriel Seth's eyes, and the anger that had been extinguished surged up again.

Feeling hurt after his kindness was rejected, the impatient Flesh Tearer suddenly took a step forward and quickly approached the Blood Angel - his behavior horrified Malakin, and he almost stepped in to stop him, but the Blood Knight held him back.

Sentor Joe pointed him in another direction.

There, Sanguinius stared at the scene with an expressionless face, while the other two Chapter Masters knew nothing about it. At least, Gabriel Seth had no idea that he was immersed in some indescribable complex of emotions.

He raised his head and glared at Dante angrily.

"Let me make this clear to you, old man," he growled. "When I first learned that I was going to fight alongside a legend like you, I felt honored."

"Dante, Louis Dante, the warrior who once repelled the demon tide single-handedly, the Chapter Master of the Mother Group. Others have forgotten who you are, but I won't. I remember every hero among us, and the Flesh Tearer remembers everyone."

"But not now, because I find you incredibly arrogant. You disappoint me, and you will disappoint my brothers in the future. They all look up to you, and I won't expose the truth until they find out for themselves what kind of person you really are."

He smirked, revealing the fangs that were unique to angel children. "After all, I don't want them to hate me."

"So you hate me?" Dante asked.

"Are you worthy?" Seth replied.

Dante reached out and held him, saying calmly, "It seems that you have a deep misunderstanding of me, brother."

The Blood Angel placed his left hand on his waist.

"Let us speak with swords."

The Flesh Tearer readily agreed.

(End of this chapter)