Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

"The proud man only wants to exert his supremacy over his companions." - "The Book of Lorgar"

"One hundred and seventy-one," Luojia counted silently, "One hundred and seventy-two..."

Horus was briefly attracted by the image of Lorgar on the screen, wondering what his brother was counting.

Seeing the battle commander turning his gaze towards him, Lorgar Aurelion raised his head and responded with a peaceful smile. The golden inscriptions on his face were painted on the Word Bearers' Glory Queen-class battleship Fidelitas Lex. Illuminated by pure light.

Inside this glorious flagship, which is like a mobile church, the Wandering Temple set up on the spine of the ship is the usual strategic command place for those who hold the truth.

𝟲𝟵𝘀𝗵𝘂𝘅.𝗻𝗲𝘁]

The interior decoration of the church is exquisite but not luxurious. It strictly abides by the various simple rules within the Word Bearers, which represents their pursuit of moral purity and simplicity of life, as well as their rejection of all the constraints of worldly vanity.

From the angle of the camera, Horus could also see the golden Gothic words inscribed around the iron altar in the center of the Wandering Temple, "He alone is above, and all are equal below."

He was about to curiously ask what content Lorgar was counting, when the screen that symbolized Perturabo flickered. The signal was unstable, strong and weak, resulting in a large number of flickering gray and white electronic horizontal stripes.

"Perturabo?" Horus tentatively called his brother's name, "Our appointment time is almost up."

The Iron Lord's voice passed through the cable and came from afar.

"And..." The signal was cut off and restored after two seconds. "five minutes."

Subsequently, the screen of the Cheorwon space fortress where the signal source was located in the Iron Warriors went out again.

Horus held his chin helplessly and moved his gaze to the third screen that had never been lit.

The display screen of the Dark Angels is always as dark as the name of their legion.

During this period of battle, Leon and his First Legion were often in an elusive state, and their traces were difficult to confirm. Horus wondered whether the Emperor had given the First Legion too many secret weapons to achieve this. Effect.

And this kind of confidentiality has continued into their combat meetings-this does not mean that Leon will not come to the meeting, but that although he will definitely appear in the meeting, it is completely unclear when he will arrive and when he will leave. fathom.

Horus shook his head in his heart, feeling rare fatigue for some reason. He flipped through the battle reports on the table and began to prepare his next opening remarks.

They have opened up an entire corridor, including several planets and satellites as rear bases, and sent Astartes to stay behind to consolidate their positions deep into the Randan Empire. Now, they encountered a cluster of war satellites and the main star that controlled the satellites. This was also the place where Horus had designated the legions to meet at the beginning of the war.

In these months of battles, their progress was generally in line with or even exceeded expectations, and this was achieved under the premise that each legion mainly fought alone.

Yes, in the end they did not negotiate a clear method of tactical cooperation. The legion-style combat of the Iron Warriors and the tactical team of the Luna Wolves did not work well together. The unbridled offensive of Lorgar's Word Bearers may have been too destructive. Strong, and Dark Angel...

"I don't want the lives of my soldiers to be squandered like dirt and rocks by others." Leon said it bluntly without hiding his edge. His righteousness caused Horus to fall into self-doubt for a moment, and the reflection caused by self-doubt made him temporarily unable to refute Leon El'Jonson's words with evidence.

Okay, he thought, pinching the gold ring on his finger to get rid of the unhappiness and hesitation in his heart. Although Leon was the Emperor's eldest son, he was the first Primarch to be brought back to Terra by the Emperor himself. He was born with the responsibility of caring for his later brothers, and he always carried out the Emperor's will. Well done.

"Two hundred and thirty-three, two hundred and thirty-four..." Lorgar continued to count his numbers. His voice passed through the sound array and rang softly in Horus's ears, but no matter how beautiful the voice was, , after continuously reciting hundreds of numbers, it will make people a little anxious.

Horus asked as kindly as he could: "Lorgar, may I know what you are counting?"

"Me?" Luojia turned his attention back to the camera again, "I'm counting the gifts we can give to my father."

"Gift? When did you secretly prepare a gift for father?"

"I hide nothing from the light of day—"

Perturabo's screen lit up again, and the Lord of Iron opened the iron chair. From the perspective of the small camera placed on the table, he looked like a mountain pouring down when he sat down. Then, he raised the camera angle, revealing his serious face and the data cables connected to all directions.

The crackle of artillery fire and the roar of engines came from his side of the public audio as the background sound of the meeting.

"Two minutes left, Horus," Perturabo said. "Am I the last one? No...the macrocannon array will turn another eleven and a half degrees, well...I hope I'm not late."

Luojia paused the count and asked: "Are you still commanding?"

"Two companies are breaking through a planet's orbital defense network...the engines increase power, now..."

Perturabo reached out and brushed his face, reorganizing the thoughts in his mind and moving the part responsible for directing the war into the silent internal communication channel, so that he no longer needed to continue dictating orders.

"I'm ready. Leon hasn't come yet?" the Iron Lord said.

"I'm here." A low reply came. The Dark Angels' displays remained dark, but the Lion's voice was already echoing across the Primarch's strategy chamber audio systems.

Then, the silent display suddenly lit up.

The Lord of the First Army sat in the center of his ivory and obsidian throne, one hand resting on the finely carved armrest, and the other supporting his marble profile. Standing beside him was a dark angel, tall and thin, with curly red hair and a cold expression.

"When did you come... Forget it, let's just summarize." Horus scratched his head in frustration.

"I guess you don't want to hear what a great offensive effect we have achieved, or that we have gone one-half of the distance by chasing the red line left by the second army. Next, what we need to dismantle is this Assemble war satellites to take back the main star and regain control of the throat of the space corridor.

"We all know that Duncan used the Queen of Glory's collision angle when dealing with the war satellite at Moss. Now, the various signals from the detection instruments and auspicious devices tell us that the number we have to face is It’s three.”

The commander of the war glanced across several screens, and his brothers were all listening to him. Every time he encountered this kind of scene, he could feel his energy becoming more concentrated, and a kind of passion was stimulated from the inside out.

"My current idea is to start with the outer one together to crack the overall defense circle, and then deal with the corresponding small clusters in turn. If possible, we can also dismantle the two war satellites and clear them in the enemy's territory. Create a cutoff line, then return to the attack direction, and double-team the internal satellites and main star.

"What do you think?"

Leon put down the hand that was supporting his cheek, and the lifted cloak drooped. "After the first war satellite is destroyed, the remaining ones of its kind will increase their vigilance and enter a state of alert. And we have four Astartes legions and five fully prepared Titan legions."

He pulled the holographic image at hand, drew a horizontal line on the map, arranged all the logos of the four legions on the horizontal line, and marked a thick arrow pointing toward the inside.

"You should attack together," Leon said, "on all war satellites."

"What about you, Leon?" Lorgar asked.

"The Dark Angels will lead the attack on the main star. My legion's offensive cannot be dispersed to avoid possible losses caused by weakened attacks."

"Your opinion is justified, my brother," the Truth Speaker said quietly, his violet eyes carrying humble respect, "but if you follow your arrangements, attacking the main star will require a large number of flexible ground assault units, as well as Maintaining close contact and close cooperation with other legions at all times, I think the person who should really hold this position is probably Horus’s Lunar Wolf.”

The lion's tone darkened. "If you think the Dark Angels are not powerful enough for this responsibility, you can just say so, Aurelion."

The man with the true words shook his head slightly: "All things obey Him. Everyone has their own place."

"In Caliban, we don't believe in this," the Lion King was unmoved. "You need to come up with practical arguments."

"Listen to my thoughts, brothers," Perturabo began, and he immediately attracted the attention of several others.

"Please." Horus stretched out his hand in the direction of Perturabo's screen, "Speak freely, Lord of Iron, as long as you don't speak too freely like Rogal Dorn."

Horus' words caused Perturabo to chuckle, and the atmosphere became lively in an instant.

"I think I can speak better than the golden skull of Dorn, let alone him himself." Perturabo said, "The plans proposed by Horus and the Lion both regarded the main star orbited by the war satellite as an attack. The key point, but we must first know that the battle fortress structure of this group has been isolated by us as we gradually penetrate the Randan sideline.

“The reason why it can still exist is that it is a self-sufficient system, which also means that its internal military strength is actually limited.

"If all three of its war satellites are under attack, or even one satellite is attacked, the forces within this isolated block may gather towards the war satellites. Under this premise, its main star should instead Being in a weak defensive state, it should be especially suitable for small teams to infiltrate operations. "

Lorgar smiled and spoke almost immediately: "I agree with you, Perturabo."

Perturabo nodded slightly in response.

He has discovered that Aurelion always seems to be standing with him intentionally or unintentionally. When they explored the hospital wing together before, it was Lorgar who accompanied him; during the military operations in the past few months, Lorgar also always Willing to cooperate with him.

He didn't understand the secret of this. If he had the chance later, he would really like to ask the reason.

Leon was silent and lost in thought. "That's right," he said, his tone harsh, but it did show the Lion's approval. "Isolated fortress systems can fall into a void within themselves."

"A strike team responsible for infiltration?" Horus confirmed what Perturabo meant. "It just so happens that the attack on the war satellite does not require a team of infiltrators. So, what you mean is, in the attack on the satellite At the same time, send an infiltration team to invade the main star... Who will form this team? "

Without the need for an iron hand, his camera automatically displayed the fluorescent blue grid of the star map under the control of neural connections. A war satellite is marked red, connecting the lines of the four expeditionary forces.

He spoke: "To put it more completely, I think we can jointly take down one satellite first and send smaller forces to the remaining satellites, implying that we will compete for occupation rights. At the same time..."

A second dotted line extends from the four Astartes legions, jointly pointing to the main star they will attack.

“We can simultaneously draw teams from our respective legions to form a flexible infiltration force.

"On the one hand, this will break Ran Dan's inference about our existing tactical style - if they maintain smooth internal communication, on the other hand, for future considerations, we should also let the armies understand each other. If we generals If it’s difficult to reach enough consensus, let our soldiers do it.”

Horus was thoughtful and touched his head again. He hadn't been in the mood for a haircut lately, and a layer of extremely short, downy hair had sprouted up again.

He sometimes teases each other with his soldiers. If everyone doesn't cut their hair, after the whole battle, will they become a group of short-haired boys, or will they have long hair hanging over their shoulders and must be tied into a bunch to be fixed in their helmets? .

"Your assumption is based on the premise that the internal strength of this isolated system is indeed limited." Horus pointed out a blind spot, "But if their strength is sufficient to fill the satellites and the main star, we will send a joint team to the main star. Just falling into the abyss.”

Perturabo erased the star map on the screen, "I have my own way of determining the density of my enemies, Horus."

Horus sighed: "Another secret of yours, okay. But let me guess, is it related to the Emperor's old friend? I thought he returned to Terra."

"He is indeed in Terra now." Perturabo replied, "Therefore, my method is actually to aggregate war data and build an estimation model. Okay, my brothers, do you have any other ideas? ?Our meeting has been going on for ten minutes, which is enough time for my fleet to launch another round of torpedoes."

"No more," Lorgar said with a smile, "As for the formation of the team, I think we can leave it to our commanders. They understand the hearts of Space Marines better than we do. This is due to the difference in responsibilities we are born with. "

"I must say, Perturabo, your presence has improved the efficiency of all of us." Horus pretended to complain, "It's only been ten minutes! A combat meeting is over?"

"I have no objection." Leon said, raising a hand and grabbing the main star in the star chart in front of him. The holographic image shattered in his palm, as if it was being grasped and torn apart.

"Okay, adjourn." Horus clapped his hands and announced simply, "I really look forward to discovering something new on this main star. We have dug deep enough. And, Lorgar, I have a If I don’t get answers to the unfinished questions, I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep well for the next week.”

"Please say."

"What gift have you prepared for father, Lorgar?" Horus leaned forward curiously. Leon, who was about to leave the screen, also stopped and looked over with dark green eyes.

Lorgar pursed his lips and smiled happily and restrainedly, the look on his face lit up by the gift he had in mind.

"The bones of the heathen," he said, "chiefly skulls, and some ornamental humerus and phalanges, and so on. I will make a holy throne out of them, to dissolve the blasphemy which they have in the world, and the blasphemy against Him. The destruction caused by the radiance. I am taking inventory of available materials..."

"Okay, thank you..." Horus forced a smile from his stiff face, "Father will be amazed by this, Lorgar."

"Thank you, Horus." The Truespeaker nodded to him sincerely.

Leon frowned, showing a trace of confusion. "Does Father like this, Horus? Do we need to do this?"

Perturabo reached out and covered the lower half of his face.

"No, I will explain to you later. Lorgar, you can continue counting. Goodbye..." Horus hung up the call with Lorgar eagerly and turned to Leon: "This is Lorgar's personal hobby. . He never harmed people within the human empire, and the expedition was always very efficient, so my father allowed him to do all this."

"The Emperor doesn't like it, then," said the Lion. "Why did you deceive Lorgar?"

"I didn't, Leon, the Emperor is above..."

Leon was still waiting to ask again, and Perturabo interjected: "As you said, I will not ask freely like Rogal Dorn. Goodbye, Horus, and I look forward to our cooperation."

After saying that, the Iron Lord blinked and took the initiative to cut off the communication.

Leon's eyebrows frowned even more tightly, apparently making some secret logical deductions. Finally, he spoke: "I understand that I will not learn from Rogal Dorn. Goodbye, Horus."

Then, he also took the initiative to end the conversation.

Horus breathed a long sigh of relief and suddenly realized that Leon had not actually met Rogal Dorn in person, and the image of the Terran Guards might have become unusual in Leon's eyes.

Sorry, Donne. Horus thought. He didn't do it on purpose.