Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 392 Analysis
Titus, this was not the pharmacist's original name, but this does not mean that his current name has any real meaning that he intended.

In fact, there were a series of little accidents there.

"Olympians also like to name themselves after the names of ancient heroes, that was a long time ago," Titus said, observing the process of one of his apprentices purifying samples, concentrating, and extracting proteins, checking whether there was anything in his steps. omission.

It's not that the two of them are really teachers and apprentices in military rank, but Titus is always followed by a large number of young pharmacists who are willing to learn from him.

In front of the pharmacist, the entire laboratory was evenly cut into adjacent squares. In front of many cubicles sat automatic machines that looked similar to their genetic father's hoop robot, only half the size. ——This is made by themselves to assist them in completing some tasks that are difficult for a single person to do, or repetitive tasks that do not require manpower.

Titus also owns one, and now he is assigned to clean the dust and dander in the console.

"During my naming process, my parents also used the name of a general in ancient legends, Titus Andronicus. He had a story of bitterness and hatred. I actually never liked it." Titus smiled and said to his other apothecary apprentice.

"So after I joined the Iron Warriors, I added a letter to my name to prove that I was not that general. During that time, I originally planned to call me Tidius... If you have time, go check out the matrix-assisted laser ionization over there. Thank you, Mida." He nodded to the other apprentice. There are multiple stations performing analysis and research processes on the same set of samples.

"But your name is not Tideus now," someone asked, in front of the pharmacist, the processed material had just been introduced into the ion trap mass spectrometer. A row of variations of the Iron Warriors Legion emblem is painted on the machine's shell, using a variety of representative artistic styles accumulated by humans in painting over tens of thousands of years.

Considering that paints and engraving knives obviously cannot be brought into the laboratory, it is difficult to imagine how many innocuous creative manufacturing commissions the group of technical steel warriors secretly received in the process of manufacturing various equipment.

"Because I later read the books in the Iron-Blooded library," Titus said, "I discovered that almost 30,000 years ago, there was a wrong space theorem with the same name as Tydeus, although no one else should have noticed... …I changed my name again and changed two letters in my name, and finally it became like this.”

-

The results came quickly, and the answers they obtained were disappointing but not unexpected.

On his Thinker, the mass spectrometry analysis software had just typed a line "Establishment Complete" in the screen console. The machine compared the existing species database of the Iron Warriors and tried to match the bodies collected by the team members that were cannibalized by Ran Dan's aliens. sample.

"Oh, don't laugh at me," Titus said, waving his servo arm wildly in an ineffective threat.

"First, report to my father that the virus sample we found is not in the library." Titus gave the order, "Next, let's test other properties of this neurovirus. Remember the first point, be careful of sample leakage. No People want to clean the entire ship every six months like the Phalanx, right?”

"You are so sophisticated, Andronicus." There was an uncontrollable chuckle.

"...We temporarily named it Ran Dan's Seed."

Perturabo put down his datapad and glanced across the communication screens of several Primarchs, stopping briefly at Lorgar Aurelion.

Since the last conversation, the number of times Lorgar mentioned his faith had further decreased, but his extremely sincere eyes always made Perturabo shiver all over. After this battle, it would be best if he had less contact with the Word Bearers. Although Lorgar's warriors were well received by the other cousins ​​who worked with them, Perturabo decided to add a small personal element of emotion to his future considerations of legion cooperation.

"It sounds like they can act on almost any organic matter," Horus concluded again, patting the artificial fur on his shoulder. "The transcription of genes, plants, animals, all come. How does Ran Dan control it himself? Such dangerous substances? They can’t let it convert all of their territory into those things.”

He shook his hand and drew an arc to represent those flesh and blood structures.

"If the pictures Perturabo showed me are universal, then they do live on the remains of life." Lorgar said, his screen is often the one with the brightest background light among the people. A piece of brilliant golden light fell from the top of the Wandering Temple, illuminating the golden inscriptions on his skin dazzlingly.

Perturabo had to adjust the color saturation on that screen individually.

"It is impossible for a purely biological virus to achieve this effect," Leon commented. "I think in the end it's still about psionics."

From the serious face of Leon El'Jonson, Perturabo could not tell whether the son of the forest had just read a large number of psychic books in the past two days to fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

There is undoubtedly an unknown connection with metaphysical supernatural forces on Caliban, but no one except the Emperor, and perhaps Malcador, Morse, and Magnus, knows what it is.

"Perhaps this is a material carrier of psychic energy, or a simulated material form," Perturabo said. "Therefore, they will decompose immediately after completing the transformation of the biological ganglia, and there is only a very low probability of delaying the decomposition. time. This makes it difficult for pharmacists to conduct adequate testing.”

"I can't find any problems with my Luna Wolf. That may be the reason. We haven't caught up with the flesh and blood structure that has been transformed halfway." Horus replied regretfully.

He sometimes wondered if they could have gotten closer to the missing Second Legion if they had discovered the existence of this psychic virus at that time.

——But did the Second Legion discover this substance at that time? No one here knew the answer.

"It's time for us to move on," Perturabo said. "This Prime will be our springboard into the Corridor, one thing is for sure. The deeper we go into the Randan Empire, the closer we will be to victory. At least we already know that. , this psychic neurovirus infects the Astartes extremely slowly and can be effectively suppressed."

"Only the bodies left behind are poisoned," Lorgar said softly.

"So, can we count on the Second Legion not at least..." Horus paused. Even if it was just a hypothesis, he still didn't want to say the word, "Be transformed?"

"I don't know." The Iron Lord lowered his eyes and recalled the empty pedestal in the Square of Heroes.

(End of this chapter)