The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Although the fleet had already arrived in Terra's orbit, Holy Terra was never a simple place, and because of Soshjan's special status, just how to enter Terra became a matter worth discussing.

Fehrsal, as an envoy, returned to the surface at once to report to the High Lords' Council, but the replacement sent by the High Lords did not immediately convey when and how the Star Knights should enter Terra, only telling them to wait a while, and so the matter came to a strange standstill.

Soshjan had envisioned a grand triumphal ceremony, for which he had even brought some "special products" from the Maelstrom, but the High Lords did not seem inclined to grant his wish.

With no orders from Terra, the fleet could only wait idly in the Phalanx. The sluggishness of the Imperial bureaucracy once again refreshed Soshjan's understanding. He thought he had already moved slowly enough, and even made a point of wandering around some planets to give Terra time to prepare, but it seemed they still hadn't prepared anything?

During this time waiting in the Phalanx, Soshjan could only pass the time by wandering around this ancient space fortress. But this matter was also very miraculous. Even the Imperial Fists themselves were now a bit unclear about the internal structure of the Phalanx. Some passages were directly sealed off, and no one knew what was behind them.

One place in particular interested Soshjan the most – the Eisenhorn Archive.

This place was the archive of the Imperial Fists Chapter and Legion era, containing a large number of the Primarch's manuscripts and records. Soshjan knew that Dorn must have had contact with Xerxes, and perhaps some key information was recorded here.

But this place was highly confidential, and only members of the Imperial Fists' Fifth Company, the Chapter's Librarians, and Chaplains were allowed to enter.

To this end, Soshjan specifically sought out Lysander to convey his meaning. Actually, he was a little embarrassed and uneasy when saying this, after all, this was the Seventh Legion's top-secret archive, and he was, after all, an outsider.

Unexpectedly, in less than an hour, he received a reply granting him permission to enter, which even made him suspect that there was some inside story he didn't know.

But since the Imperial Fists allowed it, Soshjan didn't pretend to be coy and walked into this heavily guarded archive with a grand gesture—

First, he had to take off his armor, then pass through three blast doors, each of which required the security system to scan his face. During this process, more than twenty weapons were pointed at his position.

After passing through the blast doors, he also had to wait a moment, then a servitor carrying a lamp led him through a heavy bronze-clad wooden door, finally entering this archive that recorded the most core secrets of the Imperial Fists.

Originally, Soshjan thought this would be an incredibly huge space, after all, after arriving in the Solar System, all he had witnessed were various super-giant constructs, which almost made him have illusions about the cognition of volume and space.

However, in fact, this archive was indeed large, but compared to the entire Phalanx, it seemed very small.

It was generally a rectangular parallelepiped, with the farthest point being about four or five hundred meters, and the height being about twenty meters. It was divided into three floors in total, but the top was not closed, but there were several suspended walkways connecting the corridors along the walls. Looking up, you could see the dark roof. In the dim light, you could see bookcases and bookshelves occupying every wall, and as long as there was space, it would be filled with books.

The first floor was filled with bookcases about four meters high. This height was obviously designed so that it would not appear too short when the Primarch used it, and it would not appear too high when the Astartes used it. Different covers and books or scrolls of different thicknesses were also neatly stacked in the bookcases.

It was definitely not easy to find what you needed in this vast archive, but it was much easier with the assistance of servo-skulls.

"Take me to the area where the Primarch's manuscripts or diaries are stored."

After receiving Soshjan's voice command, the servo-skull holding the searchlight then shook and rose, and began to move, and Soshjan followed it closely.

Besides those sluggish cleaning servitors, he was the only one in this place, so it seemed very quiet and eerie, and even the sound of footsteps seemed to be a group of people wandering in the distance under multiple echoes, and the shaking shadows also easily made people have the illusion that there were observers all around.

In less than a minute, the servo-skull brought Soshjan to a single door, and then the scanner on the door scanned the servo-skull and slowly opened.

Walking in, the lighting ball lit up, and a small study appeared in front of Soshjan. There were only three bookshelves against the wall, but they were all individually equipped with small stasis fields, obviously to maximize the preservation of this precious information.

Soshjan then pulled out a book from it, and one sentence after opening it made him laugh—

'Perturabo is a petty and paranoid man, I don't like him'

Soshjan couldn't help shaking his head and whispering:

"In a sense, Dorn and Perturabo are really brothers, similar in every sense"

Then he suddenly froze, and a strange sense of déjà vu flashed in his mind, as if he had said this sentence.

But he had no impression at all.

Shaking his head, Soshjan continued to read.

'The Legion still needs to be trained, they have a lot to learn'

After that, it was a summary of various battles led by Dorn with the new Seventh Legion. Soshjan found that Dorn really liked to do battle summaries and recorded them in great detail.

As a result, seeing the back, a sentence almost made Soshjan laugh out loud.

'Perturabo is a difficult to communicate petty and paranoid man. I severely taught him a lesson in simulated combat, but his attitude was as stinky and hard as a lump of dried feces. I hate him'

There was nothing after that, and Soshjan took out another book.

'Brother Horus is a great and proud warrior, he can lead everyone, but sometimes his attitude is not firm enough, which is a fatal weakness for a leader'

'Lion is a proud and paranoid man, I'm not sure if this is a gift that Caliban gave him'

'Fulgrim is a good mediator. If there were more people like him among the brothers, everyone might get along better'

This was a diary recording the battles in the Midnight Star Zone. It seemed that Dorn had also had conflicts with Lion, but it was not what Soshjan was looking for.

After putting it back, he glanced at it. There seemed to be hundreds of books and materials here. If he looked at them one by one, he didn't know how long it would take.

Then he thought for a while, if it was about the missing Legions, Dorn might not publicly record it, or would not publicly display it, so he said to the servo-skull:

"I need the hidden archives."

At first, the servo-skull was unmoved, and Soshjan repeated it again.

"I need the hidden archives."

At this time, the servo-skull suddenly moved and floated to one side of the wall. Then a miniature scanning device extended from the wall. After scanning it once, the bookcase slowly slid left and right, revealing a space only one person wide, in which two small brown-covered booklets floated.

Soshjan took the booklets and carefully opened them.

'Horus is coming, I don't know if I can stop him, but this is my duty, I must do it. For this reason, I can only turn the palace into a fortress. It is sad to destroy and modify all the beautiful things I designed'

'I finally realized that Corax's nonsense was actually true. Although this does not change the fact that he is still a madman, if I had taken what he said seriously at the time, would the situation have changed? If he had stood on our side in this rebellion, would the situation have been much better? His cruel methods are just right for dealing with traitors'