Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 346 Galaspa on the tip of the tongue
Garaspa once belonged to a superior order of knights, but later it evolved into an ownerless ruin. The ground was broken, covered with brown and yellow and dark green poisonous gas billowing from the thick fog, like a layer of dirty The shrouds were stacked in an unreasonable manner.

When Mortarion brought Sanguinius and Horus Luperkar, who had come from afar, to set foot on the land of Garaspar's main nest again, the corpses scattered everywhere were still piled up like mountains. Stack them into categories and count them.

Several hills of corpses about ten meters high are like pustules on the earth, waiting for the force of nature to decompose and reconstruct them.

The poisonous gas used by Mortarion greatly slowed this process, but nature would eventually overcome whatever humanity had imposed upon its existence.

At the same time, Mortarion noticed with displeasure that there seemed to be some kind of worry hidden behind the perfect smile of Archangel Sanguinius.

"You used poison gas?" Sanguinius said worriedly, biting his lip with his teeth.

"Efficient," Mortarion said, his voice dull through the respirator. "They die faster."

"Did you use the one prepared by the Ministry of Military Affairs?" Sanguinius asked.

"No, I mixed it myself."

Horus coughed in a low voice, "Just looking at the color, there isn't much difference. Is it more toxic?"

Horus Luperkar, more perceptive than Mortarion, reached over his wings and rested his hand on Sanguinius's shoulder.

"I've heard of them." Mortarion thought of the rumors he had heard during his time studying on Terra. A ruthless army with some bad reputations, looking very different from their Primarch.

"We understand, Mortarion, we understand what you are doing here, it is a bit..." he chose the right words, "cruel, but the Empire needs one or more troops who are good at annihilation. The Ninth Legion Also aware of the need to do so, I think.”

"And I have heard of you," Sanguinius sighed softly, "and I believe we can learn much from you. We all do."

He took a breath and looked around the environment they were currently in. They were located next to a hill of corpses. Some mortals were dragging corpses and handing over reports to each other to count the number of deaths in this area.

"Uh, yes, what next?" Horus asked.

Sanguinius shook his head: "This was a massacre caused by poison gas and artillery fire."

"This can enhance their resistance to the military poison gas inside the Death Guard, and is more conducive to fighting in high poison gas concentration environments."

"Before I do that, I want to know what you're worried about," Mortarion said, not giving an inch. “Is that all I’ve done to the city?”

"What do you think about this?" he asked.

The Lord of Death noticed that Sanguinius' expression changed slightly when he heard him mention the Captain, and there seemed to be a potential embarrassment hidden in it.

This made Mortarion even more dissatisfied. He didn't like others to show hypocrisy in front of him. The more dazzling they were, the more unbearable they were.

"Far stronger." Mortarion sneered, "I told you, I provided the standard poison wine, Horus, for my legionnaires."

"Can you tell me why you think Galaspar deserves a ruthless slaughter?" He looked at the mortals who were counting the dead, and seemed to want to say something else, but hesitated.

He might as well be as candid as the Emperor, Mortarion thought.

To be honest, after meeting Sanguinius, Mortarion found it difficult to believe in the authenticity of those rumors, just as he simply did not believe in one of the classic rumors about Perturabo - the non-existent mentor. .

After Mortarion finished speaking, he noticed that Horus and Sanguinius exchanged a cryptic look that seemed to hide a mystery. He doesn't understand what this means and is resentful of the secret that lies between them.

"This is the Barbarus way of dealing with overlords and tyrants," Mortarion said. "The company commanders you send to explore various parts of Garaspa will come to the same conclusion."

He doubted Sanguinius had ever been confronted like this, after all the angel's wings were quivering uneasily.

"No, it's not the way you fight that worries me," the angel said.

"Is that why I did this? I left no tyrant on the planet, no prisoners, no prisoners. Does this make you feel uncomfortable?" he asked, because the look on Sanguinius's face was indeed Not very comfortable.

"Excuse me, do people here have the habit of writing history books?" Horus asked.

"The Knights of Galaspar have internal records. They have preserved a large amount of ancient technology and culture, as well as narrative files." Mortarion said doubtfully, "Read them, and you will understand why I want to descend on this planet. ruling."

"Then it seems you don't have to worry," Horus smiled, tapping Sanguinius's back lightly with his elbow, "There are records to record the experience."

"Not detailed enough," Sanguinius whispered. "The archives are too pale for them."

"This is enough to explain the sins of the Knights."

"That's not what we meant," Horus said awkwardly, glancing furtively at Sanguinius.

"Is there a problem with the body count here?" Sanguinius asked cautiously, refusing to appear more anomalous.

Mortarion nodded to the working mortals, and a sergeant came over. After understanding the needs of the Primarchs, the sergeant said: "There are deviations, but the missing figures are within the error range, my lord."

"Missing?" Sanguinius muttered.

"Don't worry, this kind of large-scale statistics will inevitably have some deviations," Horus comforted.

"No," Sanguinius said, "I must know - have any red-armored Space Marines been here before?"

The sergeant was a little confused: "Yes, sir. They came here and asked us how Lord Mortarion made military decisions. They wanted to learn. We couldn't answer, so they left."

Are the Blood Angels really here to learn their fighting methods?

Mortarion was surprised, and suddenly felt that Sanguinius's light was no longer so dazzling.

But Sanguinius seemed even more nervous.

"Leaving in which direction?" asked the angel. "What to do?"

"They asked if there were any living prisoners, and we said there were no, so we didn't know what the Space Marines were doing. At about 120 degrees, there were roughly fifteen people in the team, and the speed per hour was difficult to estimate."

"Sorry," Sanguinius said hastily, "I'm leaving for a moment."

With that said, before his brothers could stop him, Sanguinius spread his wings and flew away, passing through the thick smoke left over from the war, heading towards the direction pointed by the sergeant.

"What happened to him?" Mortarion asked blankly, not knowing why.

Horus showed an awkward smile: "There is something I might want to thank you for, my dear brother."

"what's up?"

"You left no one alive," Horus said seriously.

"Ah?" Mortarion asked dully through the respirator, "But doesn't the Empire's truth instruct us to be kind to humans?"

Horus meaningfully dusted Mortarion's brass armor away.

"You gave them one less chance," he whispered, his voice controlled so that only the two of them could hear it. "After all, it's fresher to be alive."

(End of this chapter)