Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

I am Alpharius - and it's a lie.

If you will believe, lady, I can tell you my story, for you are not listening.

I do not remember my origins. Even as unusual as I am, I did not know what I was before I opened my eyes, took form, and left the place where I was born.

I remember only those blurred fragments and lost impressions, those dim and dark fragments, the hazy music of wandering in the endless whirling world of light, and the only eternal shining one, the shining end above all things.

He gave me a part, making me born from the void and darkness. When He left, I was so lost.

I must have woken up one night or day, cold enough to freeze water.

I know my name, something gave it to me, and I said it to myself. When I say it, I feel no firm mission or high praise. I just took it, a convenient name, a predetermined end.

I sat there, smelling the industrial pollution. The complex smell of artificial chemical elements burned my respiratory tract, but it was not enough to hurt me. I recognized the debris around me, the extended pipes, the intertwined broken iron fragments, and the abandoned signboards pressing down the metal limbs in the pit.

I stood up and examined my body, from the palms, arms to the torso and legs. I realized that the body shape I had was taller and more perfect than I thought. If I had to use a more accurate word, I would choose cold and pale.

I shook off the garbage residue in the pit and stood on the top of the pile of waste paper boxes soaked in toxic liquid, rusted metal plates, a large amount of discarded carbon fiber, expired medicines, plastics, damaged dryers, waste fluorescent tubes and monitoring screens, letting the gorgeous darkness fall on my body.

Looking at the dazzling multi-colored lights in the distance and the planetary transit space stations across the sky, I knew that countless short-distance aircraft and shuttles had been operating ineffectively and busily, transporting medicines, food, weapons and clothing between the stars and the atmosphere. Now all transportation has stopped, and I am the only living person in this area, born in this accumulation of industrial waste that is enough to completely destroy the physiological health of an ordinary human in a few seconds.

At this moment, I suddenly felt that the place where I was was a symbol of a kind of extinction after expansion, darkness in the bright, and the end in the brilliance. I understood the purpose of my creation, and, for the first time, I began to doubt it.

In addition, I also knew that I had the ability to use the most rudimentary navigation device to guide the ship to make a short-distance subspace jump. It was strange that I knew it before I had any experience.

Some rodents approached here and wandered around the edge of the garbage pit. They were looking for wealth in the abandoned pits, and more despair to support their lives. I approached them, killed them, and stepped into the deserted city in front of me naked, knowing that my journey began.

The child raised his head and saw the aircraft landing, and the giant with golden light all over his body landed on the ground. All the scavengers fell to the ground in an instant with the impact of a force, like a wall of garbage being kicked down. The giant called the child his son to express his surprise and tried to make him ignore the giant's actions of killing all passers-by in an instant to cover up its existence. The first answer he inadvertently brought to the child was to keep a secret, keep a secret at all costs.

I think this did not give the child enough peace of mind, of course, no doubt.

In any case, lady, the enemy is coming. They are really too familiar with me, and I didn't carry my weapon, Sarisanata. In the original plan, all this battle should not have broken out. In any case, we must go to the next cave to hide.

——

"Don't worry about me, my brother. Kill our enemies."

Robot Guilliman said, the short sword in his hand and the grenade launcher are in perfect harmony. His martial arts are based on superb technical training and complex rational calculations. The silver light reflected when attacking has a regular rhythm that is carefully controlled.

"When they choose to betray, death is the only sentence for them by Macragge."

"You are very angry, Robert." Perturabo said. His hand cannon was too powerful for a mortal soldier, enough to blow a single individual everywhere. His warhammer was the same, except for the way the dead were distributed on the ground. So Perturabo was currently using a mortal sword that he had picked up, which was like a small toy in his hand, but it was deadly enough.

When his small sword passed through a soldier's chest, Perturabo immediately felt the touch was different from that of an ordinary person. The hand cannon connected by the neural cable fired immediately at the moment the thought came, hitting the soldier's upper body directly, but it did not have the desired effect.

A layer of camouflage film of human skin color was torn off along with its armor, exposing a mass of yellow flesh with dark purple stripes in the air, which was once bound into a human form by the shell, and quickly expanded to its original ugly form in just a few breaths. The transparent sac on its back bulged, revealing a human head hidden inside.

"What is that!" Robert roared.

"The alien that your father Connaugh said." Perturabo quickly understood the existence of the biological structure. It was a biotechnology product that was half a porter and half a combat machine. The transparent cavity on the back was obviously highly efficient. storage tool, it seems that the owner it serves has a need for heads. "This rebellion is not just the result of human greed. The help of external forces gave the fools the arrogant courage."

He leaned back, close to Robert's back, to put several fleeing soldiers within range of his hand cannon. After a roar, Perturabo asked: "Continue to the Senate?"

Robert gritted his teeth: "Yes. We must convene a Senate meeting to stabilize the overall situation, stop the rebellion on the planet, suppress other factions that are ready to move, declare the victory of the Connaught family, and at the same time show our position to the shadows in the dark."

"Okay," said Perturabo. "So you know Macragge is politically unstable."

"I thought..." Robert Guilliman swallowed his words and drove the surging emotions to the edge of his brain, "I have known Gloria for so many years."

"Keep fighting, my brother," said Perturabo. "I have made the same mistakes as you. At least you can be sure that nothing will happen to Conor under Morse's care."

"Who is he?" Robert couldn't help but ask, "How much does he know?"

Perturabo ran with Robert through the city, firing at the enemy.

The number of bullets Robert Guilliman used proved that he was far angrier than he let on, subconsciously observing all the hidden corners and darkened windows as he advanced, Perturabo guessed he couldn't help but To find traces of Tarasha Yuton.

"He's trustworthy, that's the only thing I know for sure," Perturabo said.

——

I smell a brother, bloody, brutal. He led his team to land in this neighborhood, hunting our enemies with such vigorous and swift posture, like a group of well-trained hounds, given the name that can only be used by human warriors.

Angron. I knew nothing about him other than that he had just returned to the Legion, and I hated the lack of information.

His appearance should have surprised me, even displeased me. But my humility is leading me to admit that I am grateful for his unexpected arrival.

If he didn't show up, I might have to find a way to take you to fight, ma'am.

If you are irreparably harmed as a result, it will be a failure that I cannot accept. It is not difficult to imagine that this failure will leave an eternal crack in the role I need to play. Alpharius will be accompanied by an unforgivable stain. To this world that is ending. I will live up to Malcador's permission and the Emperor's observation.

It all started with a test, ma'am, or rather a free favor from me.

Without some strong enough catalyst, the dissenting voices in the Macragge Senate will forever remain unfired bullets in the barrel, and I just want to keep the crisis under control. Afterwards, I will depart, leaving the crowning honors to Roboute Guilliman. No one will ever know that I've been to Macragge.

That should have been a successful exercise, right? I remember Konstantin Waldo named it Game of Blood.

I make mistakes. The hand that induces rebellion is stretched out by maggots. Schloss people. This is their name.

Listen, the sound of their fighting is just outside the room where we hide. The ax split open the disgusting bodies of the worms, and the spears pierced them one by one and nailed them to the wall. I heard the hiss of liquids dripping onto the ground that were strong enough to corrode steel armor. Even my skin would be damaged by this level of corrosion.

In Basafor, I was chased by them, and the intelligence network I established was invaded by them. That was my first unknown failure.

I thought I was getting rid of them, leaving these alien creatures that were invading the human world in their dark and gloomy disc aircraft thousands of light years away. I don't. They hide among my subordinates, like insects parasitic on the backs of healthy species, sucking flesh and blood and injecting anesthesia to hide their evil deeds.

This isn't the first time they've taken advantage of human civil unrest for their own benefit, and I don't understand why they do what they do. I don't understand their minds, struggle to dismantle their logic, struggle against their endless patience, and the only thing I'm sure of is that they allow my mistakes to rise to the surface of the world.

Just beyond this wall, I heard the sounds of fighting fading, the roar of chainsaws and the blast of grenades dying to a halt. Fortunately, these aliens underestimated the power of the Empire. After all, the human regimes they had easily overthrown were too weak and vulnerable to the Emperor's Human Empire. Angron is destroying it all.

Wait a minute, ma'am. Once Angron has destroyed the aliens that hinder our progress, I will lead you to the next safe place. Operating in stealth is my gift, and we will get through this crisis safely. I guarantee that you will emerge from the Council Chamber unscathed and I will depart on the next merchant ship, using my gift to guide navigators until I find those magical entrances...

The heavy ax suddenly cut through the wall, and I turned over, my heart beating violently. Bricks rumbled above my head, the brass gladiator's armor crafted by the Adeptus Mechanicus accentuating its majesty and enormity in the dusk light, a tidal sound rising and falling from the joints of the armor with every movement of the Primarch. , the whole world seemed to be shaken.

His precise next blow proved that his act of breaking down the wall was not a test. I rolled on the spot to avoid the blow, and deftly simulated the panic moves of a mortal, making me look horrified: "Sir, I am not a traitor!"

Seriously speaking, we are all Primarchs. Even if I am not wearing armor and my weapon is away from me, we should have the equal strength to fight. But there is no need for me to break away from my role and expose my...

Angron's laughing voice was like the collapse of rocks: "I can't hear your emotions clearly, pretender! Pay the price for your actions before you confess your identity!"

Angron's battle ax struck in an instant, the howling wind mixed with the hot breath that could shatter the earth and stone, and every heavy attack struck at the beat of the heart. His smile was almost a sneer, and my avoidance could be described as embarrassing, not to mention that I had to be distracted by the life and death of Tarasha Yuton.

The power I was once proud of was shattered by another Primarch's slashing attack blessed by a battle armor. My speed and agility had nowhere to display in the limited space. I was trapped in the safe house I had prepared, fretting over why I had reinforced the walls to the point of being so impenetrable.

I thought with unprecedented anxiety about how I would escape from an adult Primarch, searching for every opportunity I could.

Even when I was far away from the human empire, relying on extremely limited resources to fight against pirates, aliens, and political regimes that retained technological relics, and developing my own power with nothing, I had never encountered such an unequal and inescapable struggle. .

Finally, I was hit in the front by the suddenly twisted back of the ax, and my body hit the wall behind me. My internal organs were in pain and my leg bones were cracking.

I know it's time to stop. I cannot die today, before I have fought to the best of my ability across the stars and fulfilled my destiny, before my talents are realized, before I die with shameful failure before the Imperium gets a full Shadowblade.

"Stop!" I yelled. "Stop!"

The ax was raised to my ear, and if I had hair, a lock of it must have been severed. Angron's scarred face approached me, his brass eyes filled with terrible pressure.

I gasped, but there was still one thing I didn't understand. How was I found?

Then I saw a figure in black robe walking beside Angron. I was shocked to find that I had met him.

We met in the market a month ago, and I immediately remembered every word he said at that time, "secret police," he mentioned the word. Did he already recognize me then? There is absolutely no reason for that.

"Who are you!" Angron roared.

"I'm Alpharius!" I said quickly.

The man in black robe approached me and stared at my face, thoughtfully.

Then he said: "That's a lie."

Slaugth, the space worm man, is directly transliterated here because there is no unified translation.