The Astartes Family's Notebook

As a pilot project, it seems that only the Fourth and Eighth Companies adopted the flat command system of company commander-sergeant-combat comrades, while the other companies were no different from their old employer, Silver Skull.

Jon's identity is somewhat special, and it is a major taboo for any organization to randomly harbor deserters from other chapters, as this would trigger a large-scale conflict if discovered.

However, his status as a technical sergeant effectively mitigated the potential threat.

As long as the helmet isn't removed, who will know the unfortunate child's true identity?

Is the Desolate Wings truly a loyalist warband?

Jon wasn't quite sure...

But following Brother Samar won't make you lose out or get cheated; you can just get by and make do.

Originally, the new recruits who had experienced the "blood duck era" were somewhat worried about being ostracized.

However, after systematically studying the history of the Warband, everyone felt relieved.

This Desolation Wings chapter isn't even asking whether they're enlightened or not; they're basically using the Astartes Codex like toilet paper.

Which warband would teach new recruits a hundred common techniques for dealing with judges?

Which warband would openly acknowledge a two-system approach within a single organization?

Moreover, according to the old rules, once the next batch of new recruits arrives, they automatically become veterans.

Hehe, that's great, it's really nice to mentor new recruits.

"Study hard and practice hard. Our Desolate Wings has a good technical foundation. Don't embarrass the Eighth Company."

Draven knew that Kaz valued Choon, so after taking on the new role of head instructor of recruit training, he didn't kick the unfortunate kid to the Forging Temple of the Chapter Monastery. Instead, he gave him a certain degree of autonomy.

This behavior undeniably provoked discontent among some veterans from other companies.

“This kid was raised by Kaz himself. If you’re not convinced, let’s have a go.”

Hey, what else is there to say? See you in the octagonal cage.

Then, after more than a dozen one-on-one duels, Jon gained confidence.

He was just a little too confident.

"Challenge me? Sure, I'll give you that chance."

Draven didn't waste any words and immediately launched into a brutal beating.

Are you kidding me? You little brat, you think I, Draven, have survived all these years of being "lovedly whipped" by Tyrant, Ingus, Kha'Zix, and Darius? You think I've been eating tattered steel porridge for nothing?

Even if I can't beat Kars, I can still deal with you, you unlucky thing?

That's one good thing about Astartes; they accept their losses.

Jon's fighting skills are second to none among technical sergeants. Nobody understands why Katz would make such a promising talent, who has the potential to challenge for the main combat company championship within a hundred years, a technical sergeant.

But now that Jon has proven himself to be a military strategist, his duties should no longer be subject to criticism from his defeated adversaries.

If you're not satisfied, then fight again.

The veterans of the Warband who could actually deal with Jon were all too busy to bother with these things.

The veterans were even more at ease when they learned that Jon's main task was to maintain the Centurion.

Hey, Jon and his brother are in such a state, isn't it only natural that they go to the recruits' camp to relax?

With Saladin's tacit approval, the new recruits that Kaz brought back were not subjected to any identity verification such as genetic sequencing, and everyone assumed that they were juniors trained by the chapter.

As for Blood Duck's veteran, Kaz has already reached an agreement with Epsilon to stay in Deathwatch and be a big shot.

Don't think of Deathwatch as some kind of disciplined, formal organization. It's perfectly normal for Epsilon to ask the parent organization for help; nobody cares.

When people get busy, they easily lose track of time. After experiencing the hellish washing machine, Jon no longer doubts that everyone in the Warband is a damn bad guy.

Every day is spent either crafting equipment or doing maintenance. In my spare time, I also have to attend classes to update my knowledge base and participate in research groups to repair that unlucky Centurion. Squeezing out time to bully new recruits in the recruit training camp is considered leisure and entertainment.

It took me a whole year to realize that I hadn't seen my brother Samar in a long time.

Ugh, this damn communal living is so damn fun!

"Why ask so many questions? I'm already incredibly busy as the company adjutant. Do you think the company commander's job is easy?"

"No, I want to see the company commander."

"Kaz is away on a business trip."

"Oh."

Since the Imperial Icon was hanging in the sky, Choon didn't think much of it. Especially since the chapter had a new mission: to transfer the Astartes individual control system, which the Fourth Company had previously used on the Lemanrus tank, to the Macarius heavy tank. The technical sergeants, including Choon, were so busy working on this that they were cutting back on their sleep time and had no time to worry about anything else.

Brother Samar, I've thought about you. I'm going to take care of other things now.

Haven's troubles are temporarily irrelevant to Kaz. This mission isn't far away, but luck plays a dominant role.

Even at a scale of one millionth, a single pixel on a star map is the size of three to five star systems in the real universe.

Who knows what mission the warband assigned to the missing half of the company back then, or what they encountered? In any case, the intelligence sent back by Epsilon was even more sloppy than Saladin's tactical briefing.

The conclusion is that for those without a name, the most primitive method can be used: summarizing and conducting a comprehensive search.

They found the nearest Empire world and took a warp route there, which took no more than three days. Then, following the results of the gravity probe, they began their "exploration journey".

Normally, this task should be entrusted to traveling merchants and ronin, but since it concerns the sacred artifact of the warband, we must immediately regain our urgency in preparing for the Ultra Warrior assessment. We are not afraid that the traveling merchants and ronin are unprofessional, but we are afraid that they will dawdle.

After much deliberation, Saladin decided to put Kaz in charge of the matter.

And so, Katz began his boring life as an investigator.

“Obi-Wan, tell me the truth, did the Chapter Master really not give you any extra clues at all?”

“Kaz, I’ll emphasize again, the reason I’m here is because the chapter clerics are of unwavering resolve. You should understand that relics are bound to have some psionic energy or ancient technology, and some of the things with writing on them are not suitable for you to keep... and even examining them is something only I can do.”

"Really?"

"real."

"I do not believe."

You can believe it.

Including Katz, there are a total of 21 Astartes veterans, with a minimum service period of over 150 years, making them a truly elite squad.

Although most people have never worked with Kars, they acknowledge the talents of both Kars and Obi-Wan.

After all, Obi-Wan Kenobi is now a true "veteran".

Obi-Wan was already three hundred years old when he served as the company chaplain in the Eighth Company. For more than a hundred years after Kars disappeared, the Obi-Wan brothers followed the doctor's orders and insisted on keeping breathing so that they did not die.

"So you experienced the last one, which was the twenty-fifth Astartes Army?"

"I didn't experience it firsthand, but I've heard that the then-Chapter Commander, Lord Kanvis, was furious."

"Not Lord Arahut?"

"Lord Alahut took over after the death of Commander Kanvis. I was among the last batch of recruits during the Kanvis era."

"Who has served longer, you or the Grand Master Saladin?"

"I, Saladin, joined the company two terms later than me."

The last time they worked together, Katz was still a young man, and Obi-Wan was also carrying out a mission, so their relationship wasn't exactly harmonious.

However, things have changed. In this era where even Kars is considered an old man, he can now talk to Obi-Wan about the old days of the Warband.

"So, when we formed an army last time, our Desolate Wings were really dealt with by Holy Terra?"

"It wasn't exactly a relief. Twenty gene seeds, plus the tax exemption at the time, plus a strike cruiser, actually made quite a bit. It's just that our chapter had just gone through several major battles back then, and Lord Kanvis didn't know the intricacies of it all. Our relationship with the White Scars wasn't as good back then as it is now, so we really suffered a great loss."

Could you elaborate?

"There's not much to say in detail. I don't know the specifics either, but I heard that you have to actively apply for food and supplies, or go around crying and begging. Waiting for Holy Terra to deliver them to your door is wishful thinking."

Oh, this approach... isn't it just like the disaster relief funds for Gutaira?

It's still about information asymmetry arbitrage. Startup groups like White Scars and Dark Angels definitely know the tricks of the trade, but if you don't have the right connections, who's going to help you get some benefits?

Some of the conversations were not suitable for young people to hear, as they could easily lead to unfounded thoughts. Katz's status and age were just right, and Obi-Wan, as one of the "insiders," deliberately said some things to Katz.

Interstellar travel, especially the days of speeding through the real universe, can be quite boring.

There are no newbies on the Nameless Team; everyone learns and trains on their own initiative. There's no need for Kaz to create any schedule, so the martial arts exchange held every ten days has become a fairly formal team-building activity.

Then, Katz found himself struggling even when taking on three opponents at once, often losing the fight.

"Company Commander Kaz is really strong."

"The pressure was terrifying. Their physical fitness, tactical skills, and fighting spirit were almost impossible to find any weaknesses in."

Kaz clenched his fist in confusion, something felt off; he hadn't had any trouble beating Chaos Astartes.

Afterwards, Katz talked to Obi-Wan about his confusion.

"You really are arrogant."

"We may be close, but I'll still sue you for defamation."

"Although I don't know how the Inquisition came up with this data, it's said that the average lifespan of us in Astartes is only 120 years. Katz, most of our fighting brothers don't even live to their peak before they die in battle."

A loud drum doesn't need a heavy hammer; Kars instantly understood Obi-Wan's meaning.

The gang members he fought were not the rookies from the Eighth Company. Each of them was a veteran who had lived past the average age, a mature soldier who had realized most of his potential, and a fighting brother in the same battle group who could rely on each other.

There may be older beings in Chaos Astartes, but the training environment of the Chaos Warbands cannot compare to that of the Loyalist Chapters, and their living conditions are far worse.

In an environment where betraying teammates is commonplace, don't expect Chaos Astartes to be particularly skilled in coordinated combat.

It's already quite remarkable that Kaz can win most matches against this kind of opponent combination by taking on three opponents at once.

"If you hadn't become the company commander of the Eighth Company first, I would have been happy to recommend you to be the team champion."

“Tell that to the Tyrant brothers, I learned it from them.”

"Hahaha, is this some kind of shameless behavior?"

"of course."

"By the way, has there been any news from Company Commander Motor Sich?"

"Communication conditions in the Halo Zone are terrible. A few sporadic star signals are coming back, but the specific situation is unclear. However, the situation is not very optimistic. Oh, you don't know, Ashtor came back sixty years ago. He took half of the Third Company to reinforce the area."

Oh, my brother Ashtor, the fourth company commander I've never met before.

In other words, the Desolation Wings actually sent two and a half companies of troops, a quarter of the chapter's members, to participate in this Black Knight expedition.

"Haven't you noticed that there are a lot more tech enthusiasts in the fortress monastery?"

"I have never doubted Lord Saladin's business acumen."

"It is the Rejuvenation Cult."

"Tsk tsk, I've heard of people taking out loans to work, but it's really rare to see someone working to save money for war."

"Indeed rare."

While real-world space travel is uninteresting, it is safe. Small groups of pirates dare not provoke Astartes' attack on cruisers and always avoid them.

After entering the first galaxy outside the regular flight path, the leisurely and carefree days came to an end.

The oracles array is not a panacea; after filtering out potential targets, Astartes still had to go down and take a look himself.

The Astartes, who had been cooped up on the ship for a while, were initially full of enthusiasm, but after a dozen or twenty times, their passion was eventually worn away.

There were no enemies, no battles, only a desolate planet and ruined walls.

What a tragedy! The conflict during the Two Emperors Era destroyed perhaps half of the planetary worlds in the Taiping Starfield.

In any other star system, it would be impossible to find so many ancient civilization relics.

Or to be more precise, it should be said that there wouldn't be such a high density of extinction-causing sites.

One star system contained four planets utterly destroyed by war, one of which was even burned to a crisp...

"Isn't it said that planets whose glass has been burned can undergo environmental reshaping after 600 years?"

"The overall environment has been destroyed. What use is a single, isolated planet? Does the empire lack resources from just one particular planet?"

Obi-Wan Kenobi, I suspect you're alluding to something.

We didn't find the warband relics we were looking for, but we did manage to salvage a whole ship full of things whose value we weren't sure about.

After confirming that the galaxy was not the target galaxy, Katz ordered the Nameless to make a short subspace jump and head directly to the next star system to continue its work.