Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 526: Although it is serious, someone will smile
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"What is the name of your research again?"

"The Void Matrix," Sage Corran repeated. One of his limbs raised a gnarled chrome finger. "An ancient artifact, older than the first human landings on Cadia. The last time our holy order had the opportunity to study the effects of this artifact on Blackstone Fortress was during the Gothic Wars... The data available for speculation is too scarce..."

"I don't want to hear about history, Sage. I just want to know if it can defend against that thing above our heads that's obviously charging and preparing to shoot." Strangely enough, Creed, who is considered by many to be "too rude" and like a "country bumpkin addicted to tobacco and alcohol", has a better relationship with this sage than his predecessor. In fact, the silent support of Sage Colan and the Mechanicus is one of the important reasons why Creed still has authority.

Countless exchanges took place between the Mechanical Sage's computing chip and biomass brain cells in an instant, and then he realized that Creed's attitude was not due to rudeness, but to anxiety. The Sage's biological collector collected the smell of sweat, burnt human flesh, scorched metal and denatured protein full of stress substances in the air, but he himself had long replaced all his five senses with graceful machines, so he did not realize it at first.

They were now standing in a secret cave shelter, where only the two of them were allowed to enter.

Because if any loyal human soldier saw what was happening here, there was a high probability that they would scream "Emperor bless you!" and open fire on them.

Under their feet and beside them were the bodies of fallen humans who had been burned by Colan's heavily armed servitors' flamethrowers. They were so densely packed that they covered the ground like a thick blanket, but it was obvious that these people's deaths were not entirely caused by the flames sprayed by the servitors.

Some of the remains had skulls that looked like the remains of a cracked bone and flesh flower with countless fangs, some of the bodies had an eerie sense of fracture, as if something had crawled out of their stomachs from the inside out and turned the cavity inside out, and some of the original owners were literally overloaded because they could not withstand too much psychic backlash and "painted" themselves on the rock wall.

This was originally the secret laboratory where Colan studied the stones called the Void Array. Now it has been requisitioned by Creed because it has the power amplifiers and other things he needs, and can also attempt to activate the Void Matrix at the same time.

These dead were forced replacements. They came from different places, some were forced or some were willing: a forcibly seized Inquisition ship, Cadia's prisons and death row, and of course most of the certified psykers in the Cadia Astra Militarum who could be deployed, and even those with certain psyker talents.

Their psychic energy was used to focus their attacks to replace the Cadian Astronomical Choir, whose heads had exploded due to the emotional shock waves of the Warp when the dark expeditionary fleet that covered the sky and the sun jumped into real space. Yes, without the Astronomical Choir, they could not maintain contact with the outside world, nor could they send warnings.

These people burned out their last bit of psychic potential in this secret laboratory. Rows of living people, like candles with accelerant, emitted psychic flames from their eyes, mouths and nostrils. They ignited, burned out, and died, just to send a short message: Cadia is under siege, the great plunderer, and it is urgent.

Fortunately, when the last batch of psychics were devoured by the flames of the warp psychic energy and the little demons that escaped, this message should have been sent out. Although they didn't know who would receive it, and how long it would take for someone to receive it, interpret it, and take action, there was no doubt that the matter was accomplished.

"It's up to your Void Matrix now, Sage. There's no one else here, and I sent Kyle away, so tell me the truth. Is that okay? When I came down, I looked up at that damn thing, and they were definitely about to fire that ridiculously huge main gun thing right over our heads, maybe in the next second!"

"Although my main research is the stone pillars here, our order still doesn't know enough about the alien technology." Sage Coran chose his words carefully. "As I said just now, it is not only old, but there are no similar examples for us to refer to and simulate... Well, Om Messiah's wrench, if I fail, my laboratory will become my grave, and I think it is a blessing to continue to receive data for analysis before I die."

"So what percentage is it?" Creed asked aggressively.

"My calculations give a 99 percent chance."

"Isn't this equal to success?! Damn it, start it now!"

"It's the chance of a failed startup," the sage said calmly, his mechanical bionic parts clicking, and part of his own internal program beginning to chant his final hymn and confession to the God of All Machines for him. "So you see, if I press this switch--"

The air in the secret room seemed to suddenly stagnate.

Then Sage Colan was surprised to find that his mechanical finger was pressing firmly on the switch of the void matrix - but the switch had already been pressed.

The sage's eyepiece immediately flickered, and the three lenses quickly retracted and rotated, frantically trying to capture any signs of life in the room other than the two of them. "No - Oh, Messiah! I don't remember what I just did -"

A violent knock suddenly sounded outside the armored door.

They looked at each other, and Sage Colan opened the explosion-proof door that was locked with many mechanisms, and Creed walked out.

"what happened?"

Kyle excitedly pulled him out. Creed's nose smelled sulfur, ozone, rotten blood, the special smell of the patient's chronic illness, and a smell of ammonia, but all of these were diluted by a breeze blowing across the continent and were rapidly weakening. He realized something, stepped out of the last hidden door, and looked up.

——The huge, ominous black symbol-like fortress still hung in the sky of Cadia. But the filthy light balls surging on the main gun muzzle that was originally evil and greedily accumulating the unclean energy of the warp had disappeared. The sky above the Krave war zone was clear and cloudless, with only large and small overlapping geometric figures gradually disappearing, showing the impact that had just been sustained around a certain shooting point. Around the landing point, he thought it was a cloud at first, but then Creed realized that it was the smoke of the "neutralized" warp power.

"Yes!" He excitedly lit up the cigar, took a long drag, then inhaled all the smoke into his lungs and exhaled from his nostrils. "I'm glad I don't have to think about whether I should thank you for your loyal service and quickly say some last words before being vaporized, Kyle."

His flag officer grinned. "Who isn't, sir?"

"Let's go! It's time to show them the determination of the Cadians!" He climbed to a high place and shouted to the soldiers gathered around him, "The Mechanicus's matrix protects us! They can't kill us from orbit! Do you see it?! Soldiers! The battle is not over! The battle has just begun! Cadia! Forever!"

"Don't fall! Cardia stands!"

The slogan was so loud that it spread throughout the streets and alleys.

From one fortress to another, from one bunker to another, from one city wall to another, the workers in the factory shouted slogans and began to fill the ammunition boxes. The officers in the command center threw away the data tablets, maps and other things in their hands, hugged each other and raised their hands. The sound was so loud that it formed a series of loud shouts above the Clave war zone.

"Cadia stands!"

Until the first traditional artillery shell was fired from the ground and landed on the position, ending their celebration.

The battle began for both the attacker and the defender at the same time.

The siege of Cadia has officially begun.

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"You didn't tell me that they would go down with us when we got here."

Mercury's voice was low, echoing like a beast's roar under the fortress's weird, flesh-filled ceiling. Even the Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines assigned to fight under him, wearing red armor and entangled in scriptures, began to feel uneasy. "Perhaps the Warmaster decided to put those who praise the dark gods in one place for a neater storage feel."

Warsmith Honso said in all seriousness, "Don't worry, my champion. Our own team will depart from the Indomitable and will join us on the ground. Then you can chop off any heads you like. Urkanthos has been sent by the Warmaster to board the orbital platform. He will begin landing later. Be patient. No one will come to snatch your skull."

He signaled his "controlled" "Champion of Khorne" warrior, whose fighting power was so high that he was well-known among the Khorne and Slaanesh warriors of the Legion recently, to be the first to step onto the largest airdrop pod. It was a Dreadclaw painted red with the current logo of the Word Bearers on it. The Chaos Space Marines were surprised to see that the thing began to tremble the second the champion approached it, and then because Mercury roared and punched it angrily, it immediately became as well-behaved as a proper Legion airdrop pod, as if it were a dead object.

"This Terrorclaw is ours alone!" he roared again.

The sharp edge of the two-handed axe, which was easily swung with one hand, effectively silenced the Word Bearers leader's protest - the blade, which was almost three-quarters the size of a Space Marine's axe, was now hovering just a hair's breadth in front of his speaker grille.

The Khorne Champion roared, "Don't follow me!"

"Oh, he was a little irritable, probably because he felt the competition between the champions."

The Warsmith shrugged and pulled the cloak he was wrapped in tighter around himself. The cloak was long and thick, covering his entire body. Who told him to give his camouflage to the person next to him? Then he also got into the spacious Terrorclaw. "My angry champion may lose control of himself when he sees the enemy. I will be responsible for keeping an eye on Mercurys and make sure he doesn't lose control. You guys go to other landing bays."

This sensible argument left the Word Bearers with no reason to object, and so, when all the landing bays were ready, the hangar door opened to the blue-green land of Cadia.

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The Martyrs' Bastion, located a mile outside the southern walls of Fort Clough, now received an unusual reinforcement.

The bastion itself is triangular and seven stories high. It is part of the defense system in the southern part of the war zone. The artificial plain behind it is an important landing point for the Clough Fortress's defensive artillery system.

The original Cadian guards here looked with awe and fear at the four chapter slaves who were leading a parade past them, through every passage and up to the top of the city.

These four people were slaves serving their masters and ascetics. They were covered with scars, wearing hoods, and exuding a strong smell of asceticism and sweat. They lined up in a cross formation. The first one was holding a holy shield devoutly. The golden and gorgeous shield was inlaid with a set of skulls, spines and ribs that were much larger than ordinary people. The forehead of the skull was also inlaid with the emblem of the war group in gold and obsidian. The two people on the left and right of the cross held gorgeous golden incense burners that did not match their tattered clothes. The smell of synthetic frankincense and myrrh was emitting from them. They were swinging these incense burners to spread the curling fragrant smoke to every place they arrived. The slave walking at the end held up an open, tattered hymn book that had been read countless times. Its size was second only to the shield in front. Now, the content on it was turned to "May Your Will Be Sacrificed".

These slaves were also singing these poems praising the holy death, praising the great god on the throne of Terra, praising his light that guided them forward, and they would joyfully offer him pain, rage, blood and sacrifice.

Behind this team of slaves who were "sanctifying" the area where their masters were going to fight according to the regiment's practice, was a group of taller and more eye-catching black-armored warriors. Their power armor was completely black, with only the shoulder armor being white, with a black Templar cross on it. They wore bone-white battle robes over their armor, and chains, skulls and reliquaries hung around their waists. What was particularly unique was that each of their weapons was chained to their wrist armor, and when they moved, they made an extra slight metallic friction sound when knocking against the ceramic armor, which meant that these warriors would never be separated from their weapons no matter what they did or where they went.

Walking at the front of this sacred and proud team was the leader of the Black Templar Crusaders, Marshal Amaritch, and next to him was his standard-bearer, Lord Modred of Castle. The former strode with his head held high with his hand on the hilt of his sword, while the latter held high the dragon tail flag representing the Crusis Expeditionary Force.

Following behind them was the expedition's command squad, and behind them were the battle brothers. On both wings of the team were the newcomers of the Black Templars. Their armor was lighter and thinner than that of their leading predecessors. They were loudly proclaiming the great deeds and reputations of every battle-brother in the team, and at the same time asking the other mortals here to make way for them.

"This is Davarion, the man who single-handedly destroyed a Corrupted Acolyte with a melta bomb."

"Here comes the Doom of the Orcs, the Heretic Executioner Yerfris!"

"Look, these are the ones who have sworn to save you, the mortal warriors of Cadia. Be honored! Be proud! For you will see them personally demonstrate before you how the wrath of the Supreme God-Emperor destroys the unclean enemy!"

The magnificent team walked to the highest point of the city wall, where they could turn around and see the southern wall of Clough Fortress a mile away.

"This place is called the Martyrs' Fortress," Marshal Amaritch's face was as cold as a rock, "So, why? Before the battle begins, we need to know what glorious sacrament happened here. This will inspire us."

Lord Modred looked around, and the Cadian soldiers he saw took a step back from a distance.

"So, you, yes, you," he raised his hand, and pointed his black fingertips at a company commander in the crowd, "Why is this place called the Martyrs' Bastion?"

"I, I..." The officer who was pointed out was the calmest among the crowd, but he quickly calmed down and replied, "Respected monks, I was not originally a garrison here, but there is indeed a saying that Saint Malotza was martyred here."

Marshal Amaritch remained unmoved. Obviously, this was not what he wanted to hear.

The officer looked at him and added boldly, "However, after we were transferred here, we thought that this might be the original meaning of the fortress. Martyr means martyr. You see, our duty is to delay and ensure the shooting plain behind us, but if we are surrounded, no one will come to rescue us. Our duty is to shoot at the enemy's back until we are all killed. This is what martyr means, I guess."

This time, Marshal Amaritch's face showed an expression similar to approval for the first time.

"I will," he said, looking up at the fireballs that were beginning to whistle out of the clouds in the sky, "Plant the flag!"

Mordred thrust the dragon's tail flag into the cracks in the bricks of the fortress.

The flags are unfurled and fluttering.

"We will fulfill our duty. How long will we guard this place?!" Marshal Amaritch turned around and raised his sword.

"Til death do us part!"

"Til death do us part!"

More Drop Pods roared closer.

(End of this chapter)