This is our Warhammer journey

Chapter 199 Confession (5.6k)

[Be alert for the Dawn Fleet; prepare launch contingency plans.]

[Should reserve forces be deployed? The pressure on surface operations is too high; support is needed.]

The lights were bright, illuminating the solemn bridge and the bloodstains that had splattered onto the walls and then disappeared in the blink of an eye.

beep~
Communication alarms were going off one after another, which showed how anxious the commanders on the ground were, but no one chose to answer them.

The bridge was still functioning, but everyone inside was dead.

"Mission accomplished."

The air was filled with a faint aroma of incense as Zabril led his troops to clean up the battle marks on the bridge.

He jumped down the stairs, gazing at the few scattered black-armored knights whose bodies had not been destroyed.

This is one of our own.

"Evka, are you alright?"

"Fortunately."

Evka's face was somewhat pale. A slash from the power sword had struck his abdomen. The Belissa furnace, which had not yet entered emergency operation mode, was outputting stem cells, slowly repairing his damaged body.

This encounter cost them something, and the inner ring was the best of the best in this era, so naturally it couldn't be weak.

Moreover, these hunters' experiences have made them more adept at dealing with their own kind.

Click——

The sound of metal gears meshing brought all the Dark Angels who were finishing up to a standstill.

Zabril slowly turned his head, his eyepiece locked onto the trembling transport elevator.

As the elevator ascended, a team of fully armed Devourer warriors appeared, carrying heavy bolters on their shoulders, their breastplates still bearing fresh battle marks.

The lead warrior's helmet swept around the room, finally settling on the blood-soaked dark angels.

The air solidified instantly.

"Azka".

Signaling his comrades to remain vigilant, Zabril's gaze lingered briefly on the power armor of two of the Contributors before he directly called out the name of the knight captain leading the squad.

"grown ups."

The knight captain, known as Azka, immediately stepped forward, gesturing to the devout warriors behind him to remain vigilant. The warriors behind him immediately dispersed into tactical formations, and the safety devices of their slugs clicked in unison.

He continued forward, his gaze sweeping over Zabril's figure. Only after confirming that there was nothing amiss did he slightly relax his tense shoulders.

"The bridge was boarded, but the situation has been dealt with."

Zabril spoke calmly, briefly recounting everything that had happened on the bridge. His right hand unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his sword, a gesture strikingly similar to that of the inner-circle high-ranking official he had now taken over.

"I understand."

The knight captain nodded, without any further questions.

He waited quietly for orders.

"Regroup the troops, terminate the pre-strike procedures, and recall the troops in the surface strike area."

Zabril's voice echoed in the bridge.

“Ansel is an important forging city. We need to protect the Empire’s assets. At the same time, I need you to guarantee the safety of the Empire’s citizens.”

This order perfectly aligns with the routine instructions received by the outer perimeter troops: protect facilities, rescue civilians, and maintain order.

In other words, the outer ring always receives these kinds of commands.

The outer ring of the Dark Angels is glorious; they represent the face of the Dark Angels and encompass almost all of humanity's fantasies about the perfect knight in countless imperial novels.

Any knight who discovers the existence of the inner ring will only face scrutiny from within it.

If approved, they join the inner circle to keep the secret together; if not, they simply disappear without a trace, yet the secret remains intact.

"Yes, my lord."

The knight captain accepted the order and then left.

He doesn't ask why.

The first thing he learned from joining the Legion was not to ask why.

And they really knew nothing.

"It's even more terrifying than what we experienced back then."

Glancing out of the corner of his eye at the departing volunteers, Evka, who was deactivating the attack procedure, couldn't help but sigh to his comrades.

"Yes."

Zabril nodded, slid the panel of the Bird Array, ignored the series of commands transmitted from the ground, and began to connect to the Dawn.

Although the Dark Angels during the Legion era had numerous secret societies and factions engaged in open and covert struggles, they at least remembered their direct responsibility to the Lion. No matter how fierce the competition for cultural and technical inheritance was, it would never have developed into the distorted superior-subordinate relationship it has today.

If anyone dares to create such a madman's system within the legion, the lion's fist will surely blow their heads off.

"The inner ring members have been eliminated in a targeted manner, and some of their identities have been replaced."

His message, along with routine strategic information exchanges, was sent out in encrypted form.

"A total of 72 Astartes and more than 1300 civilians on board were killed, while our side suffered 5 casualties. We have now taken complete control of the warship's operations and the attack procedure has been terminated."

On the bridge of the Dawn, Romulus received the report with a solemn expression.

His fingers moved rapidly across the holographic star map, secretly directing rigorously vetted mortal officials to take over command of the controlled warships.

Meanwhile, the technical sergeants of Steelwing were carefully analyzing the database of captured forbidden weapons.

He really dislikes conflict, but since a conflict has broken out, he is decisive.

Moreover, Dark Angel is really hard to keep up with.

Romulus looked up and saw several more reports with varying results popping up, indicating that similar takeover operations were being carried out simultaneously on 13 Devotion warships.

In just fifteen minutes, the Dawn Fleet took control of the Devotion ships.

Violent, but effective.

Of course, conflict inevitably involves death.

Nobody intended for it to look this bad at first.

"call--"

Zabril shook his head, sighed softly, and released the Pentagram Order's spell, allowing his own habits to return to his body.

Next, other members will take over this identity and work with other colleagues to carry out long-term undercover work.

There are many paths to enlightenment for the Spirit Race, one of which is the Thousand Faces.

This is a path of imitation learning, specializing in infiltration and combat.

They can use psychic abilities and technology to read an individual's soul, completely becoming that person in terms of personality, and simultaneously accessing all of the person's memories, even non-intelligent life forms.

For example, spiders.

Originally, the Eldar were like humans, with only four limbs. However, when they traveled deeper into the Thousand Faces Path, they were even able to build these nerve nodes directly from their bodies. As long as they were connected to the limbs, they could use them at will, as if they had completely become another kind of creature.

The dark angels naturally learned this skill.

However, they are still very inexperienced. Even as Astartes, due to the difference between their souls and bodies, even as extraordinary Astartes, they still find it very difficult to learn the soul techniques that the Eldar have inherited for tens of millions of years.

But it doesn't matter.

Because they possess true Eldar mentors.

With guidance from those ancient aliens, coupled with the infiltration experience accumulated over generations of Dark Angels and the special talents inherited through their bloodlines, they were more than capable of completing this dangerous performance.

This is enough.

'He's becoming more and more like Alpha.'

Zabril couldn't help but sigh softly, his fingers unconsciously tracing the deliberately blurred Legion insignia on his breastplate, where the inner rings of the fallen angels were.

He now understood why His Highness did not want the hatred between them and the fallen angels to continue.

His Highness had summoned him privately, acknowledging the deep blood debt between them and even tacitly approving of their tit-for-tat revenge—but absolutely forbidding the distortion of personal grudges into accusations of betrayal against the entire group.

Because as long as this hatred remains, as long as it is a secret that the Dark Angels need to bury and a fact they dare not face.

Then they will only ever live in the shadows.

"Make them repent!"

The voice of a colleague reached his mind, and the parliamentary aide lowered his eyes.

The sound was quite jarring.
-
[Weapon charging in progress—]

"If we intend to face this history squarely, then we should not elevate it to the level of a rebellion by a certain group."

After adjusting the weapon firing module, Dark Angel had taken over the frigate. Arthur and his companions were chatting casually.

"So you approve of them continuing to execute the Dark Angels' Inner Circle?"

Ramses leaned against the control panel, examining the soul circuit in his hand.

"On the battlefield, everyone relies on their own abilities; after the war, settlements will be made according to the established rules."

Arthur finally stopped his adjustments and looked up at the slowly scrolling progress bar.

“It’s not that I don’t allow them to settle scores and grievances. The principle that a gentleman doesn’t dwell on past wrongs and that past wrongs harm one’s character is indeed abstract in this context. If I were to demand that of them, I would be a fool who doesn’t consider the realities of the situation.”

He sighed.

"But no matter which side it is, the Dark Angels always like to label others, and they even like to label themselves."

Arthur's tactical database contains countless contingency plans, but he has never included the option of 'classifying the entire Dark Angels Chapter as a rebellion' in his list of choices.

He knew all too well the heavy burden this ancient warband carried. Every member who joined the Dark Angels inner circle had to bear a heavy, bloody history, which was far removed from the glorious education they had received in the past.

The gilded sacred texts still gleam in the monastery's cloisters, while the newly recruited inner-circle reservists face a starkly different, dark doctrine. Many inner-circle reservists perish at the test of loyalty.

Because they have doubts about the responsibilities of the inner circle, their culture and past glory make it impossible for them to accept the darkness within the inner circle.

This is infidelity.

And so silence descended forever.

Their nerves will twitch from the torture of psychic soul-searching, while their voices will be permanently silenced.

The number of outer ring members executed by the inner ring might not actually be less than the number of fallen angels they captured.

The Dark Angels Chapter itself is riddled with internal conflicts.

Even the establishment of the inner ring was suspected by these dark angels on orbit as to have destroyed the Primarch homeworld, causing the Legion to split, and they were afraid that the surviving 'fallen angels' would reveal the whole story and trigger an Imperial investigation.

When the Empire discovered a loyal Caliban knight who claimed to have joined the Lion King's rebellion, a devastating attack from the sky shattered the entire planet into pieces.

You can't just answer when questioned by the empire.

'I obeyed the Lion King's orders to bomb Caliban, and then I don't know why the planet exploded, the Primarch disappeared, the Legion split, and the legacy was severed.'

And then they claim to be loyal?

Just as the saying goes, "When suspicion arises, the charge is established," the moment they suspect they are rebels, that is the moment they are.

All their actions revolved around the goal of 'covering up anything that might prove our rebellion,' a mindset that destined them to be paranoid and extreme.

That's why the veterans are increasingly convinced that these people are traitors, and it's no wonder that the inner circle is obsessed.

However, the absolute authority of the inner circle and the objective existence of fallen angels temporarily suppressed this fatal contradiction.

“I agree that the inner ring should never exist. Even if all its members were tried and executed, none of them would be innocent. But they should never be tried for splitting the legion or rebelling.”

Arthur pointed to the ground and spoke, but it sounded more like he was addressing someone else:

"How are those warriors in the outer ring who uphold the sacred texts supposed to conduct themselves? What are they? Accomplices of the rebels? Traitors to humanity? Suddenly they've become rebels, and then I have to deal with another wave of insane inner ring warriors?"

If the transmigrators really wanted to cause trouble, they could simply broadcast their inner circle's deeds throughout the entire galaxy from the start. They wouldn't need the various factions within the empire to verify the truth; the Dark Angels would fight amongst themselves.

and then?
The Dark Angels have over a hundred sub-groups, and many members of the inner circle are not included in the Holy Scriptures. Putting veterans into a static field is a common operation, and conservatively speaking, it involves at least 100,000 Astartes.

A civil war involving 100,000 Astartes, with ancient technology passed down for millennia, is it possible that the forces of Chaos will turn a blind eye to this?

How many people will die, how much damage will be caused, and how many soldiers will be provided to Chaos?
The modern Dark Angels have always prioritized chapter honor and their own interests over the Empire. Ultimately, they are not on the same page. The only reason they can coexist peacefully at present is that the Empire has not yet discovered the Dark Angels' secrets.

“I have a plan. By infiltrating various sub-communities, we can gradually instill the original space marines into the generation we have trained. The original space marines have no historical baggage and do not need to carry this hatred.”

He will make sure to explain the details of the Great Rebellion to every new recruit, and the new generation of Dark Angels will not need to live on past honors.

"The Space Marines actually have a very high iteration rate. With each subtraction and addition, it won't take more than a hundred years for them to naturally dominate the mainstream ideology, making it much easier to organize them at that time."

"But I also hope that one of the parties can cooperate."

Arthur was in a real bind, but soon, the progress bar had reached 99%, which made him refocus his attention on the battlefield.

"Master Ya, you've really worked hard."

Ramses leaned leisurely against the edge of the observation window, holding a steaming cup of tea in his hand.

While watching the cat battle, using psionic powers to provide vision for allies, retrieving the souls of a few unlucky ones, and listening to my friends' words, I became even more determined not to bring my own kittens.

Compared to Arthur's cautious approach to prevent an even bigger explosion, he found the Blood Angels' little ducklings clinging to Karna much cuter.

The little angel has its flaws, but the child is obedient.

As for the inner circle, to be honest, even if Arthur stood in front of Ezekiel now and explained the whole story, this chief think tank member would still yell at him.

"Make Arthur repent!"

Then he chose to die to prove his innocence.

Will he believe it?

As believed.

Will he listen?

I absolutely will not listen.

These dark angels are so easily provoked, they're practically superhuman!

Not to mention the Thousand Sons, from the brilliant Primarch Magnus to the brilliant Tzeentch's Chosen Ariman, you can see how extraordinary these people are.

He's not bringing anyone; let whoever wants to come can come.

Ramses glanced at the park, where the Eldar prophet was analyzing the memories of the inner rings to help the Pentagrams Cult's think tank construct a flawless disguise for the undercover members.

The demons, on the other hand, follow a more old-fashioned approach: copying knowledge, experimenting with spells, and designing various product components.

Ramses rubbed his chin and raised the indicator again.

The Khorne vampire lashed out even harder with his whip, forcing the Nurgles, who were howling in pain, to run even faster on their short legs.

The monk withdrew his gaze with satisfaction, and looking at the farce on the ground, he couldn't help but smile again.

Happy.

Who puts unnecessary pressure on themselves?
Are the demon slave owners and alien capitalists unhappy with their jobs?
-
[Charging complete. Launch now?]

The cold, mechanical female voice of the machine servant echoed inside the metal cabin, and the scarlet warning lights illuminated the control panel as if it were a pool of blood.

Snapped--

Two armored hands fell almost simultaneously, slapping onto completely opposite control panels.

[Instructions received, initiate strike procedure]

The system inputs data and begins executing the final protocol. The holographic projection automatically unfolds a battlefield situation map, with countless points of light representing lives about to be destroyed.

Three, two, one

The countdown timer sounded exceptionally clear in the deathly silent bridge.

Arthur's eyepiece reflected the fluctuating numbers.

【emission! 】

Accompanying the ship's violent tremors was a deafening roar.
-
Huhu——

A strong, cold wind swept across the planet's surface almost simultaneously with the frigate's descent into the atmosphere.

鏉ヤ 钖楋纻
Flesh and blood were swallowed up. As the sharks bared their fangs, those knights who had abandoned their virtue and hid in the shadows were devoured by the sharks. They seemed to understand something and immediately issued a warning.

“I thought you would be more cautious, resolve the conflicts at hand first, and then come to me to cause new trouble.”

Tiberius sneered, tossed down the headless body of an Inner Ring Knight, and spun the chainsaw in his hand, spitting out bones and metal fragments.

"The order has been given."

Kahulangi's eyes flashed with psionic energy. The communication had been one-way blocked, and he then repeated:

"Lord Romulus has ordered us to relocate and assist the Blood Angels in their attack on the Chaos targets on the surface. The safety of the city will be handed over to Lord Arthur."

What if someone tries to stop us?

He stood as he spoke, the shadows clinging to him like a second skin, making his massive body almost impossible to capture visually.

Kahulangi received the information; they had spent a long time with the Wings of Dawn and were very familiar with the personalities of the four adults.

They are resolute in whatever they do, and once they have made up their minds, they will do their best to do it well, but they are extremely cautious in the use of their lives.

Therefore, every time their wrath descends upon those who are destined to die, it leaves a deep impression.

they said.

"kill."
-
Dense snowflakes pounded against the lens as Ezekiel gazed at the cannons firing in the sky.

The inner ring's tactic was to delay the Man-Eating Shark and Mantis Warriors by destroying the infrastructure, leading the troops to a safe location, and then using the forbidden weapons carried by the frigates to completely destroy the port area, including the forging tower where the Mechanicus Sage was located.

The outer ring of devotees, now assembled, will launch an attack on the forces of chaos, while the inner ring will use this opportunity to cleanse the planet of any presence tainted by fallen angels.

With the firepower of the frigate, all of this can be easily accomplished.

He could no longer consider these tactics.

The fabric of his clothes fluttered in the wind as Ezekiel pinned the blade to the ground, looking up at the sky he could no longer touch.

A vortex appeared there, like a giant eye suddenly opening.

That was the prelude to the firing of the rift cannon; he had seen it many times.

The eye was looking down at the earth, its gaze sweeping around before finally locking onto the distant Chaos Fortress.

Without warning, the vortex split open.

The moment it locked onto the Chaos Fortress, the fabric of reality groaned under the strain.

No explosion, no flash.

The steel fortress was like a child's overturned building blocks. The building debris and the traitors disintegrated together in the warp rift. Those traitors who were intertwined with the chaos were swallowed by the void before they could even scream.

This is not what we agreed on.

He silently contacted the escort ships, the fleet, and the inner circle members in the sky and on the ground.

Silence, silence, and more silence.

That suffocating threat has returned.

He glanced at Nagil beside him, who was already leading his guards in preparation for battle.

The wind and snow intensified.

Ezekiel suddenly realized.

They're in big trouble.

(End of this chapter)