Warhammer: Angron Training Manual

Chapter 554: Causes of Rebellion
The Mortarion fleet, which temporarily had the upper hand, began to retreat, and the pocket universe entrance was opened directly behind the fleet.

As Qin Xia's personal guards, the Think Tank Fleet naturally entered the pocket universe before the Mortarion Fleet.

By the time the Emperor's Children and Traitor Death Guard fleets had assembled into battle formation, only a tenth of their total number of ships had been evacuated.

On the command deck of the Endurance, the rescued Lask was still kneeling before Mortarion.

"How many people do you have under your command?" When Mortarion saw the flagship entering the pocket universe, he asked in a calm tone what he was most concerned about.

"About thirty thousand." Qin Xia answered on behalf of Lask, "These are the people I rescued with the teleportation spell. Not one of them was left behind. Except for Lask, they are all on the hangar deck of your flagship."

Lasker nodded in agreement, indicating that this was indeed the case.

More than thirty thousand... Mortarion looked up and calculated secretly.

There should be nearly 90,000 rebel fighters, and as we have just seen, these rebel fighters are staying together with the Emperor's Children Space Marines, and Fulgrim should have command over those rebel friendly forces.

Thinking of this, Mortarion looked down at Lask, thinking that there was at least one good thing, that is, the 30,000 loyalists of the Barbarus origin brought by Lask could at least be confirmed to be absolutely loyal.

Qin Xia also thought so.

Rask of the Death Guard was not considered a loyalist in the original history of the rebellion, but an extremely determined rebel. However, Rask had one characteristic: he would support whoever Mortarion supported.

As someone who had followed Mortarion very early on and witnessed everything Mortarion had done to save the Barbarus people, he had already regarded Mortarion as the true savior.

Lask was not loyal to the Emperor.

But it doesn’t matter, even the primarchs can rebel.

"Aichmand." Qin Xia turned and looked at the only Moon Wolf present.

Eichmand was in a trance at this time. He did not respond when the Lord of the White Knights called his name. He just stared blankly at the empty space in front of him, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Pharmacist." Mortarion thought that Eichmand's silence was due to the slap he had just given him. "Make sure this guy wakes up. I still need him to provide some information."

"What's the problem?" Eichmand met the Primarch's gaze.

Mortarion did not ask directly, but walked into the strategy room connected to the command deck.

Everyone who was allowed into the strategy room was glanced at by the Primarch as he walked by.

Qin Xia, Lasker, Eichmander.

Just these three people.

The airtight door of the strategic room slammed shut after three people and a Primarch entered the room.

"Let me check the intelligence." Mortarion stood with his hands behind his back. "There are 90,000 confirmed traitors in my legion, Lask. I need you to tell me the details you know."

Lasker saluted immediately.

"The warp storm scattered many of the ships and your offspring."

"After surviving the storm, all the lost warships arrived at the system where the Emperor's Children Legion fleet is stationed."

"Rumors spread among the lost warships, and we were forced to make a choice."

Lasker held up three fingers.

Mention three perceptions of the Death Guard traitors.

"The first type believes that because they are of Barbary origin, they will be replaced and abandoned."

"The second type is those who don't think they will be abandoned because they are of the Barbarus descent. However, because the senior officers in the legion, including most of the company commanders, have expressed their opinions, they have no choice but to compromise or remain silent."

"The third type is those who are swept up in all kinds of lies and have no idea of ​​the situation. They just see people around them betraying and so they betray, and they may not even know that they are the ones who betrayed. This type of people is the most common."

Rask saluted Mortarion again.

"However, I and the more than 30,000 people I lead do not think that we will be abandoned. We also know what the conspiracy of Typhon and others is."

"I have conducted investigations and have determined that Typhon was seeking to corrupt you, rather than 'carrying out your will and commands' as he reassured us after the Warp Storm."

"So I immediately chose to lead my men to attack the Emperor's Children and the traitors, but afterwards I had no way to escape, so I abandoned my ships and stayed in the planet's underground fortress."

At this point, Lasker fell silent, indicating that he had finished telling what he knew.

It did not surprise Mortarion that Typhon and his supporters had deceived more than 90,000 people.

First, the current situation is special, and second, Typhon is also a special person.

Even if other companies may not care about Typhon, Typhon has already monopolized the Primarch's right to interpret. Mortarion, who is isolated in the Kel system, has no way to speak to the legion soldiers.

However, after today, there should be many Death Guards who will come to their senses and return to the right path.

The Primarch and his flagship appeared in the 0901 system and attacked the Emperor's Children, which was a call in itself.

"Do you think Typhon has the ability to split himself in two?" Mortarion looked at Qin Xia, seeking the answer from this psychic master. "For example, he split himself into two, one in the Kerr system ready to attack me, and the other in the Emperor's Children to seduce the Lost Fleet?"

"If he really split himself into two, I would see two... existences connected to his soul projection in my psychic vision." Qin Xia shook his head, "So the answer is simple, no, he just has a way to freely shuttle between two galaxies." "I agree with the Lord of the White Knights." Lasker recalled a little, "I found that the traitors are not only not affected by the storm when they travel in the warp, but also reach their destination at a faster speed. Typhon probably uses this advantage to shuttle between the two locations."

Mortarion nodded silently.

Next, he asked about something that both he and Qin Xia were concerned about.

That is how the Emperor's Children and Fulgrim rebelled.

"Eichmander, you have previously represented the Luna Wolves and the Warmaster in the Emperor's Children Legion. How did they rebel?" Mortarion said.

This was definitely a painful experience for Eichmand.

When the Primarch gave orders and Eichmand was forced to recall the experience, his chest rose and fell violently, like a child awakened from his sleep and recalling a nightmare.

"The Warmaster asked me to warn Fulgrim not to come into contact with the Scorpion."

"The Spurred are a species of aliens similar to a snake, with Chaos beliefs, which is why Fulgrim was forbidden from coming into contact with them."

"But Fulgrim did come into contact with the Scorpion, but it was not a member of that alien race that he came into contact with, but a sword and a set of armor."

Eichmand pointed at the armor on Qin Xia.

"It's much more beautiful than the Lord of the White Knights' set. But to be honest, I always feel a kind of inexplicable weirdness when I look at that thing."

"It was after he came into contact with that armor and that sword that Fulgrim's personality changed drastically, and then his descendants also began to change..."

"Looking back now, I discovered that something was not right with the Emperor's Children when I went there. They were engaging in all kinds of depraved behavior."

At this point, Eichmand took a deep breath and exhaled gently without saying anything else.

Both Mortarion and Qin Xia knew that Eichmand would have to do something, otherwise he would not be able to gain the trust of the Emperor's Children.

"What happened to your ship's navigator?" Mortarion asked about another incident. "Why did he disappear after guiding your ship out of the storm?"

Eichmand shook his head slightly to indicate that he didn't know.

"I think it might be a spirit." Qin Xia suddenly blurted out something that surprised others.

Eichmand looked at Qin Xia in confusion.

"The rune that allowed you to escape from the pocket universe must have been cast on you by the Eldar, otherwise the pocket universe would not have been activated." Qin Xia said, "It is based on this that I believe you have come into contact with the Eldar."

Eichmand recalled for a moment, then wondered: Why?
Qin Xia didn't know why.

At least when it comes to the unknown navigator, it's pure guesswork.

"Fulgrim has betrayed us after all." Mortarion brought the subject back to the Primarch. "When Horus convened a confidential meeting to discuss Chaos, he and the other brothers agreed that Fulgrim was most likely to have come into contact with Chaos, followed by me."

Mortarion said with a look of helplessness and compassion. He shook his head slowly, remained silent for a few seconds, and then frowned and said, "Horus has been preventing Fulgrim from coming into contact with anything related to Chaos."

"And then? You feel like he suddenly rebelled, just as unexpected as the warp storm that ravaged the empire?" Qin Xia said the second half of Mortarion's sentence.

The Primarch nodded.

"This universe is not turn-based. It's not like everyone takes a step and then watches and waits for others to continue." Qin Xia spoke while gently scratching the gorgeous pattern on the breastplate, which was imprinted there by Fulgrim himself.

Qin Xia was still thinking at this time that what he had done for Fulgrim was almost nothing.

Originally in his plan, Angron was the top priority. Magnus, who would destroy the Webway, and Perturabo, the main force of the rebels and the anti-emperor, were also very important. Curze was just helped by Angron, and he didn't want to spend so much energy on Curze.

Then there is Horus, the most important, but uncertain possibility of salvation.

Qin Xia did have plans for Fulgrim, but he didn't have time to implement them.

As he just said, everyone in and outside this universe is not a player of a turn-based game.

Qin Xia thought that when he was raising the Dawn Star incident for the right to speak for the Astartes Legion, perhaps a minion of Chaos was roaming in the most secret corners of the galaxy, contacting those whose fate was bound to be implicated with Chaos.

"Lord of the White Knights, Your Highness." Eichmander could not help but speak, "What do you think... is the possibility of the Warmaster's rebellion? Is it possible that Abaddon came to the Emperor's Children under the Warmaster's instructions?"

"Abaddon is the equivalent of Rask to the Luna Wolves." Mortarion glanced at the newly rescued loyalist commander of the Barbarus descent. "He follows Horus' lead, so what do you think?"

Eichmand looked slightly pale.

"Don't guess." Qin Xia interrupted the speculation about Horus, "The best way is for us to go to Horus and confirm it."

Mortarion agreed.

Then he heard Qin Xia say: "But before that, we can find a way to catch Abaddon first."

"Let us do it." Mortarion raised his hand in approval.

"I'm doing this alone, it's not easy to do it with more people." Qin Xia's eyes became sharp, and he raised his right hand and clenched it, "I will grab that pigtail."

(End of this chapter)