The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Luko seemed hesitant when faced with Soshian's important assignment.

"I'm afraid I'll let you down, after all, all these years I've been—"

"I see your abilities, all you lack is some practical experience, so later I plan to have you lead a team alone to carry out combat missions. Hmm, what's this?"

Here, a piece of marked text on the document attracted Soshian's attention.

"Brother Side mentioned in his records that one of his arms is silver?"

Then he looked up at Luko.

"Where did this information come from?"

"Reporting to the Chapter Master, I discovered this while secretly organizing the White Templars' archives. It's a hand-copied picture book, said to be from the 3rd Company Commander at the beginning of the Chapter's founding. But I found some secrets hidden in the picture book. By overlapping two pages and putting them under the light, you can see the hidden text. The records on it are very chaotic, probably written in a hurry, such as 'We are being monitored,' 'My memory is a bit confused,' 'I dreamed of a great man,' and so on. Among them, I screened out some useful information, such as the Chapter Master's left arm below the elbow is silver, he almost never smiled, not even a slight smile, and he forbade any members of the Chapter from leaving Sanctuary Star."

"Hmm."

This made the suspicion in Soshian's heart even stronger, because Dorn's hand bone is now in the mountain array, and this Brother Side seems to have a problem with one of his hands as well.

Then he carefully flipped through it, wanting to find records of the other party's physical abnormalities, but there were none.

The information Luko collected was still very rich, from the causes of death of the White Templars' Chapter Masters of the past to whether there were any strangers staying in the Chapter for a long time, and there were also some situations and cultures of Sanctuary Star. Generally speaking, the White Templars Chapter, except for the initial period of history which was very vague, everything else could be considered "normal."

But this still didn't have the information Soshian hoped to get. He now wanted to confirm whether Dorn was Side, and if so, what happened to him?

"Luko, are there any other discoveries? I have a suspicion now—"

Soshian paused, still feeling that he should explain the matter to Luko clearly, perhaps it could awaken some memories that he had overlooked.

"I now suspect that Brother Side is the Primarch of the Imperial Fists, Rogal Dorn."

"This—"

Luko's always calm expression finally changed, first with shock, then turning to contemplation.

Half a minute later, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Ah, I almost overlooked this!"

"What is it?"

"In a Chapter ceremony backup record, there is a record of a certain Emperor's Ascension Day celebration, where it was recorded that Brother Side trimmed his white hair for the first time."

"White hair."

This characteristic allowed Soshian to basically determine that Side of the White Templars was the missing Primarch Dorn!

"Degenerate Gray Marrow... Hmm, have you found any more information about Degenerate Gray Marrow?"

"Chapter Master, everything I have found so far is written in the report. Degenerate Gray Marrow originated at the beginning of the Chapter's founding. Initially, very few people were transplanted with it, but after Brother Side disappeared, a large number of transplantations began. However, the problem of Degenerate Gray Marrow actually appeared when Brother Side was still around. As for Brother Side himself, there are no records... Chapter Master, I still find it hard to understand, how could a Primarch not be discovered by the people around him? Whether it's his size or his words and deeds, the warriors of the White Templars couldn't possibly not realize that this is not a Space Marine at all."

Soshian thought for a while, then said meaningfully:

"The warriors of the White Templars have obviously had their memories modified, and even their perceptions distorted."

"This... so many Astartes, who could—"

Halfway through his words, Luko stopped. He was not a fool, nor was he ignorant. He could even be said to be one of the people in the Chapter who had the most access to core secrets.

Soshian nodded, sighing.

"Yes, there must be, there were people who could do it at that time, and more than one."

After speaking, he looked at Luko.

"You did a good job, this information has given me a lot of help. I'll introduce you to someone."

Then Soshian walked to the wall on the right, and then gently knocked on the wall three times. Then the wall rose, revealing a well-disguised door, and Okam walked out of the door.

"This is Okam, an intelligence and analysis expert. He will assist you in your mission in the future."

Soshian handed the report over to Okam.

"What do you think?"

Okam just quickly scanned it and said:

"Dorn is using the people of the White Templars to experiment with Gray Marrow."

"So sure?"

"Otherwise, there is no other reason. The Guardian of Terra can't be so bored that he's playing house on a planet full of Eleventh Legion bloodlines, right?"

"But what is his goal in experimenting with Gray Marrow?"

"That's hard to say. Maybe he was instructed by someone, or maybe he wanted to obtain the secret of Gray Marrow, or—"

Okam looked at Soshian, raising an eyebrow.

"Or, continue the Gray Marrow plan formulated by Malcador."

"But he disappeared suddenly."

"Not only that, after he disappeared, it seems that the Gray Marrow plan was transferred to the Star Knights—"

Okam tilted his head and pondered for a moment, his gaze still locked on Soshian.

"It's hard to say, maybe someone discovered the secret of Gray Marrow, or rather, the conditions for its successful transplantation, so they switched to a target that could truly achieve it."

Soshian had not told Okam about the Aleksey family, but the other party had deduced something very close to the truth from the existing clues alone, truly a first-class analysis expert.

So he changed the subject.

"Then the focus now is to find out where Dorn went? Did he really disappear into that webway of unknown direction? Then where does this webway lead to?"

Because the webway was far away on Sanctuary Star, Soshian knew that it would be difficult for Luko and the others to figure it out for a while. The best way was to use the power of the Eldar.

"Luko, you and Okam should focus on the White Templars and the Chapter's affairs for now. I'll figure out how to deal with Sanctuary Star myself. Now there may be external forces infiltrating the Chapter's various warbands and companies, and even sleeper agents may have appeared among the Undying. If possible, you should first determine their identities, but don't startle the snake."

"Yes, Chapter Master!"

At this time, Soshian's personal communicator also rang, and a voice from the bridge told him that the ship had arrived in planetary orbit, so Soshian sent a message to the flight deck and the warriors to prepare.

He hadn't paid attention to the DuPont Delin family for a long time. He hoped they wouldn't disappoint him too much. Anyway, in Soshian's opinion, as long as there is courage, fighting spirit, and skill, anyone can be a pilot of the Knight Titan. What noble status is bullshit. Soshian only recognized their "bloodline authority" for Olga's sake. But if they made him feel unworthy, then he would not hesitate to replace them with a batch of more combat-effective and more loyal pilots, instead of Knights!