Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 521: Attacked from both sides
"So, someone is starting to get angry? Or did I misjudge the position of our enemy? Raiko, Zabian. Tell me, am I being attacked from all sides or am I being annihilated?"

The sound of leather boots tapping on the headquarters floor, the smell of cigars being smoked and burning rapidly, and the loud and powerful voice of Ursarkar E. Creed, the Supreme Lord of the Castle, echoed under the roof of the military conference room.

As the adjutant and standard-bearer of the High Castle Lord, Sergeant Garlan Kell stood silently at one side of the conference room, observing the room.

Ever since most of the Cadian army's senior commanders and Cadian administrative officials were killed in a sudden attack by the Volscani Cataphracts, one of the parade participants who had somehow fallen into Abaddon's minions, at the grand parade on the Tyrok Fields to welcome reinforcements, which ultimately turned into a grand tragedy - mainly because they were all crowded on the same Leviathan heavy transport vehicle to evacuate, and the conspicuous transport vehicle was fortunately (?) hit and destroyed by the Volscani traitors, so no one survived.

The former High Castle Lord Porska and the second-in-command General Kalwayne, who was supposed to take over command after his death, also died in the explosion of the Leviathan vehicle. It was the Cadian 8th Regiment and their commander Ursaka E. Creed who stepped forward in time and not only successfully stabilized the support forces that were leaderless and had their camp blown up, but also organized a counterattack against the rebels and finally suppressed the rebellion.

And afterwards, because his origin was too mysterious and his bloodline was not noble enough, he was reluctant or the result of coordination and tug-of-war among all parties. In the end, he was awarded the title of "Guardian of Cadia" by the High Lords Council in the name of the Lord of the High Castle, and served as the supreme commander of Cadia's war against the 13th Black Crusade. For this reason, there are only a few middle-level officials on Cadia who can still speak with their words - now senior officials - who come to the meeting.

Although it was called a meeting, the only people present here today were the Minister of Logistics, Conskavan Reko, Supreme Political Commissar, Ordalia Zabion, and the Lord of the High Castle. The other generals who were promoted by the Lord of the High Castle were either in their fleets or on the front lines. As for the allied forces that came to support, although there were powerful Astartes and Sisters of Battle, they did not send representatives to participate, and did not even send a liaison officer here. The angels and daughters of the Emperor often have the capital to be arrogant. Although Garlan Kyle thought that Creed might not think so, he could do nothing about it.

"It's not that serious, Ursaka." Conskavan Reko's fingertips were sliding across a data tablet. He was talking to Creed with a rigorous bureaucratic attitude, while connecting another data tablet in his hand to the interface on his skull for review. It was obvious that this logistics minister was very busy with affairs, but he still had a rare clear mind and smooth words.

"It's just that the administrative procedures of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Military Affairs are not handled in this way according to regulations. The power of the Supreme Castle Lord is not limited to military affairs, so it is an administrative position that needs to be voted on and formally approved by the Cadia Military Council. At that time, we took the initiative due to the urgency of the matter, and your appointment process was kept simple and expedited, so it is actually not in compliance with regulations and can only be regarded as a temporary appointment measure."

"Then make it legal!"

"But the premise for you to continue to hold this position is that we are still in an emergency situation! Creed!" Supreme Commissar Zabian interrupted their conversation and raised her stern voice. She sat straight and straight like a soldier among soldiers. "According to Article 67 of the Command Code, the emergency appointment of the position of Supreme Lord is limited to the most urgent wartime state. Once the state is lifted, this emergency appointment and its rights will be automatically lifted."

"So that's the problem." Creed took a long drag on his cigar. "You think the emergency is over, but I don't. What makes you think it's over?"

Zabien glanced at Rayco, who cleared his throat and pointed to the datapad he had been comparing.

"All data show that the intensity of combat is decreasing. Urgent requests for ammunition and rations have dropped significantly. We can begin to consider converting part of the military rations into civilian use, which can effectively control the level of social unrest..."

"What I mean is," Creed interrupted him, "I don't think this Black Crusade is over. This is wrong, and I don't see what it should be. This is more like a bait, a trap, a conspiracy to deliberately let our guard down, disperse the troops back to their quarters, and let the reinforcements leave here."

Zabbin looked at Raiko again, who nodded to the Supreme Commissar. She sighed, walked over to Creed, and tried to put a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Creed, the latest news and observation data intercepted by the Navy Intelligence Department show that the Vengeful Spirit is among the fleet of the traitors retreating to the Eye of Terror. This is the flagship of the Great Despoiler. He is there, and there is a high possibility that he will retreat with them. Admiral Minter will try to pursue them."

"I have recalled Minter and the fleets of others. This matter is not over yet... There are still many traitor troops on the ground of Cadia that need to be suppressed urgently."

"That's not a problem. Suppressing rebellions and large-scale insurrections is nothing new to the Cadian military," said Reko. "This is not the most urgent wartime state."

Creed's sharp eyes swept over the two of them.

Commissar Ordalia stepped forward and said, "Actually, Ursaka, this is for your own good. Taking back some of the power can effectively resolve the concerns about you planning a coup."

This time, the Supreme Castle Lord truly sneered.

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The sky above the fortress world of Cadia.

On the "Eternal Will" at Blackstone Fortress.

Urkanthos, Champion of Khorne, Lord of the Black Fleet, and Chief of the Hounds of Abaddon, was presenting his previous victory to his master.

But no one on the planet above them knew that the arrival of the fleet led by Abaddon himself was delayed by 77 minutes.

Given that the communications here had been secretly landed on Cadia more than ten hours ago, and had been artificially interrupted or tampered with by Abaddon's spymaster Shiron and his subordinates, no one on Cadia, where a banquet and carnival to celebrate their false victory were beginning, would know what price Admiral Quaren and his alert fleet paid for these 77 minutes in order to delay for these 77 minutes and allow the Messenger Fleet to escape.

The flagship of the Cadia Guard Fleet, the battleship Loyal Power - a battleship with a total length of 2.5 miles and a displacement of 16 billion tons - along with all the hundreds of ships in the entire Guard Fleet except the Messenger Fleet - and their crews - two million people, soldiers, sailors, technical officers or any other astropaths and navigators who have made ships their homes for generations -

All of them were physically crushed to dust by the pure subspace energy emitted by the Blackstone Fortress Eternal Will, which was covered and deceived by implants, under the coaxing and request of Dellaura Mokas. The nucleic acids, proteins, enzymes and other substances with life functions of organic organisms were destroyed by the energy bombardment and excitation of biological macromolecules. The bases fell off and were destroyed, and the correct cross-linking between DNA chains was lost. Two million lives were gone in an instant, and their souls? Oh, Dellaura was sure that he saw the lifeless people coming from all directions to enjoy the feast through the cracks opened by the subspace ships. They ate rather sloppily, but they devoured it very cleanly.

But Mokas thought it was all worth it, and that they should feel honored to be killed by the main gun of the Blackstone Fortress, which the Warmaster himself rode. Because this power proved her worth.

She is valuable to the Warmaster.

She could do more than just create an organic interface for the Blackstone Fortress or transform the energy of the High Heavens into organic flesh and blood and input it into the stone flesh of this hostile fortress.

And when he realized this, he would always need her, and she would always sit among the demigods beside him and watch over him.

In view of this, Mokas has been trying in recent days to get Abaddon, her Warmaster, her master, to agree that she can continue to gather the energy of the Blackstone Fortress and fire at the ground after arriving in Cadia - she is very sure that this can penetrate their shields in one fell swoop, and turn most of the defenders into elementary particles along with the fortresses and trenches they are defending, just like this alert fleet. Then Abaddon, her beloved Warmaster, the crowned monarch, the noble man who bears all the heavy burdens, can get the revenge and victory that he should have gotten long ago.

But obviously, now is not a good time to express my opinion.

Because now, she was honored to stand at his right hand as his cup bearer and wine server.

In between Mokas's thin and slender fingers, she held tightly a huge skull goblet, or more like the holy communion cup held by the holy blood priests of the Ninth Legion.

She listened to them talking while using the base of her fingers and the skin on the edges of her palms to feel the unique delicate, smooth, and hard bone touch of the wine glass that Abaddon had told her to hold.

No matter how many times, holding this wine cup made from the skull of the Primarch Horus cloned by Fabius Bile, the Fleshtwister - that's what Abaddon called him - always brings her a strange sense of security. After all, this is a precious souvenir that was chopped off by Abaddon himself and ordered to be made. Here, only she, Draulla Mokas, can hold the cup for her Warmaster with her thin mortal female body among a huge group of demigods and agents of gods.

Among the core warlords of Abaddon's Black Legion, only she, Mokas, actually has no army under her command. Because she is the child of Blackstone Fortress, and Blackstone Fortress is her mother, or it can be said that she is the only part of Blackstone Fortress that can be understood by humans or people who are close to humans, which is also the original intention of her creation.

So, in return for the Warmaster taking her hand that day and giving her a name, giving her her first name since she was created, and her first desire for something—

Yes, that's it.

Although she had always been wandering in the dark, tortuous and complex man-eating corridors of the Blackstone Fortress, going to areas that no one dared to go deep into, and only she could go deep into them with the black stone eyeballs and other implants implanted in her body, bit by bit, constantly introducing the essence of the warp into the inert night stone, so that the stone would grow huge turbid eyeballs, breathing pink-gray lungs, light mouse-gray skin, and the walls would be covered with gray blood vessels like arteries, and the door and window frames would grow black-gray gums, and the doors and windows would become gray-white jagged teeth——

But contrary to what appears on the surface, the room and furniture have become full of life.

Mokas knew that although she seemed to have brought the Blackstone Fortress back to life, in the eyes of the blackstone eye implanted in her eye socket, the part of the blackstone eroded by the energy of the warp had lost most of its activity. Only the part of the original nightstone that had not yet been introduced and infiltrated by her was the most active part. The Blackstone Fortress was alive. It was her mother, but it was too instinctive, so her mother was deceived by the blackstone part in Mokas' body and thought she was its child, allowing Mokas to use its stone walls to become anything she wanted. In the days before being found by Abaddon - by her father - she could only secretly say this in her heart now - Mokas, who still had no name, mobilized the fortress to kill anyone who wanted to attack her or hurt her in the fortress.

Cultists, secret priests, and even the Khorne berserkers who hunted her - Urkanthos's minions, Abaddon's hounds - even though she was only half the size of their arms at the time, she still killed two of them, and was able to kill the third - the third was Urkanthos, Lord of the Black Fleet, Chief of the Hounds of Abaddon, the Warlord who was now respectfully saluting the Warmaster and her standing beside the Warmaster in this conference room, the Champion of Khorne.

Although she was frightened, she was satisfied with the response and protection given to her by the mother of the fortress. Until that man, a man taller and stronger than any human she had ever seen, came to stop her from killing with the most gentle and kind voice and actions she had ever seen, and after seeing how thin she was, he knelt on one knee, took off his gauntlet, and stretched out his hand to her.

The young girl finally walked out of the shelter built of mechanical umbilical cords and flesh and blood cables, trembling, and placed her pitifully small hand into that big palm.

The fortress was indeed her mother, she was bred and born for the fortress, the fortress sheltered her and saved herself from the cultists.

But Blackrock Fortress is made of stone.

The stone fortress would not give her a name, the fortress would not speak to her gently, the fortress would not allow anyone to teach her to speak High Gothic. Even though she could kill them in the fortress, she could not make these warlords favored by their respective gods salute her - these powerful creatures have always been arrogant, just like the male individuals among the beasts on those distant, ancient planets described in the ancient scrolls she had read. They only judged whether a person was worthy of their respect and bowing based on his physique and strength.

Urkanthos is once again using his so-called strength and achievements to threaten the Warmaster.

Mokas looked at him with her special eyes. This follower of the Blood God was the one she disliked very much among all the core warlords of Abaddon. Although she disliked each of them very much - but Urkanthos was a madman, and she was sure that no one could buckle the chain around his neck except the words of the Warmaster.

At this moment, although her beloved father, her Warmaster, had encouraged and rejected him tactfully enough, the leader of the hounds still chattered about his victory and wanted the honor of being the first to land on Cadia and kill.

Humph! Do you think she doesn't know? The Warmaster made her the cup bearer beside him for more than just good looks. In this fortress conference room that she completely activated with the energy of the warp, she could use her implanted black stone eyeball to see the thoughts of everyone who walked in. This was another reason why Abaddon trusted her so much. She was really useful, wasn't she?

She stared at the thought that gradually emerged in the back of Urkanthos' mind, and thought of the blood-red fireworks that would splash out when a person was hit in the head by a bomb, unfolding before her eyes.

(End of this chapter)