Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 488 On the road, and some episodes -
"You said a mechanical sage."

"Yes. To be precise, I found the body of a mechanical sage who died of unknown causes when I was taking inventory of the inner deck warehouse. I looked at it and it didn't look like murder. But the slaves whispered that it was haunted, and they were too scared to go near it, so I went to see it first."

"...Oh, this is indeed a rare item. The slaves shouldn't be allowed to dispose of it carelessly. It usually causes a lot of waste... and may also produce dangerous waste in the process."

"Why else would I come to you at this time?"

Hong Suo raised half of his face from his simple but brand new steel laboratory table. He was just immersed in some cute and charming little materials he had just acquired. Some fresh colorful bloodstains splashed on the edge of his eyepiece and disappeared as he wiped it with a piece of sterilized cloth. Then he carefully closed the laboratory cabinet and walked around the laboratory table towards Vannas who was standing outside the door.

"Don't you want to come in and talk?"

The Raven Guard grimaced at the shadowy things in the laboratory hanging from the steel beams with chains and butcher hooks.

"Thank you. I guess I'll just stand outside."

"What's the big deal? These are the products of the arena, so I'll accept the loss if I lose. Their other parts have been properly handled, and I don't process the meat of humanoids here. There's an incinerator for disinfection next to it. What are you worried about?"

"That's great. I can feel more at ease while eating toasted starch biscuits on the bridge." Wannas said, "I never thought that I would be so eager to leave the Red Pirates' territory after staying there for a few weeks - after all, the food here is much better than that in the Eye of Terror in my opinion - but compared with the Iron Blood, it's a world of difference."

"No place can compare to the flagship of the Lord of Steel. No one can match the power of my father. Iron and blood will prevail over everything, and the choice will only be to obey or die." The Warsmith walked out of the shadows, and the airtight door closed behind him. "Let's go. You can tell me the details of the discovery of the body on the way."

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"Aha. I remember now, the poor creature." A moment later, they were standing in a large cabin with a twisted Mechanicus symbol on the door, Vannus standing behind Honsou, and at the farther end of the corridor, frightened slaves were peeking their heads out - even if humans were dying, they could not resist the curiosity of gossip.

For some reason, the vital signs of these poor creatures jumping out of the corner of Hong Suo's eyes suddenly reminded him of the child he had personally trained on the Iron Blood, his apprentice, his little Nilaydoa...

The gene seed organ culture carrier used in his operation came from the contribution of the Void Sons who died in childbirth as slaves on the upper and lower decks of the Iron Blood. Fortunately, the Iron Blood's subspace protection is very complete...

As the inexplicable muttering continued, Parogov's face, which resembled the young Rog Dorn, appeared before Hong Suo's eyes. His expression was stern, and there was a trace of genuine concern in the depths of his iris-colored eyes. When his gaze met Hong Suo's, his heart tightened and he suddenly pulled himself out of the strange sweet smell of decay.

He blinked, allowing his cortex to refocus on the events before him. His medical auspicious instrument showed that the power armor's automatic protection system had just cleared some abnormal intrusions from his blood, the index of which was slightly above the limit.

When he cast his gaze into the shadows again, he saw a fragmented corpse that was larger than normal lying a few meters in front of them. It was like a Terminator's empty shell with countless metal worms or tentacles spreading out of it, all hanging limply.

From deep in the gap in the middle of the empty shell, a mass of flesh filled with cables was glowing wetly. The swollen gray dead flesh and the activated metal oozing with black liquid were devouring each other. The semi-fluid liquid formed by the exchange of contaminated amniotic fluid with gel spread out on the ground in a large irregular mirror surface. Even the Space Marines found it difficult to distinguish more human forms from the robes soaked in corpse fluid and turned purple.

The equipment around the corpse also suffered severe warp erosion. Nameless warp worms emerged from the hazy fog, gnawing at the surrounding cables and thinkers. Some gathered on the liquid or meat, sucking nutrient-rich corrupt juice and amniotic fluid with their needle-like mouthparts.

"I suggest you step back, Vannus. The pollution level in this place is a bit high."

The former Raven Guard took three steps back and asked cautiously, "Well, I just went in and took a quick look. Is there any possibility that I was contaminated?"

The master of the potion who turned on the disinfecting light said without even turning his head, "Your soul is fine, as for your body...if you are willing to let me do some necessary tests for you."

Adalic Vannus showed an extremely conflicted look on his face.

After a buzzing sound, a bright blue-purple disinfecting light slowly and evenly swept across the entire room. The weak subspace worms made tiny squeaking screams like claws scratching glass, and turned into a puff of green smoke. They were then expelled back behind the curtain. The thick fog also revealed its true form: they were extremely small particles that fell to the ground, lost their vitality and turned into a thin layer of black powder, which made Vannus' scalp tingle.

"What the hell is this? A dead Terminator? But why is he wearing the robes of an Oum Messiah?"

"It's hard to say. These sub-space energy consciousness groups are too weak, so they may appear differently each time. They are just some small pests, but the mist they release has hallucinogenic and hypnotic effects, which will make the victim fall beside the first corpse and become the next prey of curiosity or greed."

"Is it safe now?"

"It's safe. But I still suggest you stop being cool and wear your helmet. It doesn't smell good."

"Thank you for your reminder, but he stinks so much that I have temporarily lost my sense of smell." Having said that, the Shadow Master put on his helmet and locked the airtight gasket.

They walked in together, closed the door, and carefully looked for the light switch. Fortunately, the death of the mysterious deceased did not affect most of the light circuits here. After a few flashes, the electric candles lit up, illuminating the corpse on the ground more clearly.

"Hmm... This should be a former Mechanicus priest who was captured during my last attack on the Heart of Hydra," Hong Suo half-knelt down and carefully examined the body with his mechanical arms and his fingers. "I remember that this guy was injected with the Obliterator virus by a wizard. He survived and was brought back."

"Ah, I don't quite understand this, you seem to know it very well."

"If it were any other mechanical creation, I might not be so clear about it, but after all, the first batch of Obliterators came from the Iron Warriors Legion. The relevant information has been filled in my database." Hong Suo lifted up the red robe that was full of slurry and wet, revealing the hideous edges underneath: the metal had grown a skin-like shell from the outer layer of the flesh, like a metal hood, and the metal frame was not a combination of artificial rivets, but ceramic steel gums covered with sharp steel teeth.

"Look, this looks a lot like the outline of a Terminator, but it's not. He was transformed into this by the infected virus. The daily standby form of the Obliterator is almost always like this, which is also a very conspicuous feature." "Then why did he die here?"

"Well... maybe you and I should be blamed."

"what?"

"In short, you should think that he is an unlucky guy who demonstrated to us... what will happen if your fate is not favored." The master of medicine and war blacksmith looked at the data displayed in his medical goggles, indicating that a highly dangerous red warning was flowing through the corner of his retina: Warning: Subspace blister agglomerates caused by the impact of space-time node disorder have been found. It is recommended to deal with them in time to avoid causing semi-permanent space holes here. The recommended treatment steps are as follows: 1. ...

"Don't talk like the Word Bearers. It makes my teeth sore."

"Then let me put it simply. You believe that this guy's existence triggered some kind of backlash mechanism of the Supreme Heaven, so his internal balance, which was originally in this delicate state of iron and flesh, was disrupted. In the end, he exploded from the amniotic fluid glass chamber into a mixture of metal and flesh full of energy and nutrition."

"That's all, Honsou. I need no further explanation. There is no good in knowing too much - the last time I knew too much, I was banished from the Raven Tower."

"Wise move, Vannus."

"So what are you going to do with him now?"

"of course……"

Hong Suo raised his hand, and his medical mechanical arm armor removed its camouflage and began to pop open. The servo medical mechanical arm opened its head, like a cracked metal carnivorous plant, and several different needles, drills, cutting beams and gel syringes popped out from the inside.

"... process and clean up the scene and see if we can find anything useful."

Soon, Hong Suo found some of what he wanted from the ruins of the Mechanical Priest.

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"Are you sure we should go there next?" Wannas turned from an image extracted from the memory of the Death Priest. "Speaking of which, since you actually have a force capable of crossing the galaxy and have obtained permission from Huron, why don't you try to return to Medlengard through the warp to see if Soltarn is there? Or you can consider occupying another planet first and build your own fortress and defense base... The Iron Warriors should be good at this."

"I should have told you," Honso said, "to minimize paradoxes, we can only go to places where we will never run into people we shouldn't run into, and having a base means having a clear point of attack. When every warlord in a region has an army starving for resources, it's only a matter of time before someone tries to start a fight. Outside of all my friends are my enemies. Do you really think I'm doing this to please that tyrant? I know who I am, and what people like Huron think of me is not even as good as a fart. All I care about is how to achieve my goals and make my father's nobility truly recognized by the entire universe."

"Okay." Wannas shrugged, "Then let's go there. After all, this is a seemingly reliable warp route, and it has a large amount of resources from food to munitions."

His gaze turned to the name of the largest sub-domain on the light spot marking the destination on the map: Extreme Star Domain.

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"Ah-Lord Honso, my commander, you don't seem to be in a good mood today."

With the sound of high-heeled leather boots clacking on her heels, Nosa Atasiya appeared on the bridge command deck of the Warborn with elegant steps. The blade dancer wearing a black leather cross-face mask had a particularly tight corset today, which created a thrilling arc on the waist of the androgynous Slaanesh champion.

Fortunately, the gene-seed from the Emperor's Children made his figure, which was already one of the more slender among the Astartes, appear even taller and lighter with the blessing of the Dark Prince, otherwise this scene might have been a bit hurtful to the eyes.

"So, Blade Dancer, how are you feeling today?"

"It has never been better." Atasia gracefully performed a courtly ceremony towards Honso, two beautiful short swords slapping his round hips outlined by tight leather clothes and riveted belts, and two more deadly rapiers hung on his belt on the left and right. "I would recommend that each of my warriors receive your treatment when they have time, my lord. It is invigorating and very pleasant. You are a true genius in pain."

"It's really rare to hear such compliments from you, Ataxia. You don't come to me for no reason. What's the matter with you coming to my warship today to see me?"

"Can't I come to see you if I have nothing to do, my lord?" Atasia laughed, her voice full of both masculine firmness and feminine clarity. "Ah - there is a small matter. I just remembered that we are running low on combat stimulants on our ship, sir."

The Master Potion Master raised an eyebrow when he heard this. "I just gave you three times the supply in the same cycle, and the usage of other troops has hardly changed so far. We haven't reached our destination yet, and there haven't been any encounters on the way."

However, the leader of the Blade Dancers just continued to smile at his new leader from under his mask. His pale skin only revealed a small area from his mouth to his chin. His full lips, brightly colored, curled up into a smile, attracting the attention of everyone on the bridge. A slight sweet scent of musky incense or something else filled the air.

Grendel snorted heavily and stabbed his axe hard, hitting the iron floor with a loud "clang" sound.

Many staff members and officers on the bridge withdrew their gazes as if they were burned by a branding iron, lowered their heads and quickly focused on their work at hand, not daring to look at the Dark Prince's favorite again.

"That's not necessary." The tall swordsman still smiled, "We are in the same group, Grendel."

"Perhaps," the Iron Warriors' champion replied gruffly, "but this is Iron Warriors territory, not Iron Hands territory. Remember, I was able to stop Eidolon ten thousand years ago, and I will not allow you to go too far here now."

(End of this chapter)