chsdbacks Page 732
Page 732
I wouldn't mind sending you and your legion into the heart of the Tau Empire right now, and I imagine you'd be happy to—but perhaps your favorite lads will die there; they might not be as lucky as Sevick.
You're still as ruthless as ever, Mortarian.
Conrad hissed mournfully as he darted into the shadows above the ceiling to escape.
One or two of the skulls in his arms fell off as a result. The blue heads of the Tau fell at Mortarion's feet, their eyes wide open, as if they had suffered unimaginable torment in life before being casually crushed by the Lord of Death.
Click.
I was just joking; you have very little sense of humor, Conrad.
Are Hades and Callas the only ones who understand his humor?
[You're just like that bastard Robert Guilliman, always threatening me with my offspring... So vicious, Mortalian, you deserve to have been treated the same way.]
This time, Mortarian chose to pull out the Nether Lamp from his waist and fire it upwards. After a rapid charging buzz, Conrad screamed and fell to the ground, his heads scattering everywhere.
Mortarian didn't care. He reached out and grabbed the Night Lord by the collar as he fell to the ground, then dragged him into the dungeon.
Perhaps because they had seen so many similar scenes during their journey, the Death Guard and the Midnight Lord had become accustomed to it. Upon seeing Mortarion arrive, the Death Guard guarding the dungeon saluted them and then slowly opened the door.
Which one would you like to try first?
Mortarion asked calmly, his towering Primarch sweeping over the trembling Tau people who huddled in the corners of the cramped, cold dungeon, before casually tossing Conrad out.
These Tau were captured from various burned Tau ships, intended for Mortalian to test drugs on, and to keep Conrad from bothering Mortalian occasionally.
Therefore, most of the people here are from the Air Clan and the Fire Clan. After confirming that the Earth Clan is not fundamentally different from the other clans in terms of genetic direction, one or two Earth Clan members have been thrown into a stasis field by Mortarion and imprisoned there. He reserved these for the Cult of Mechanics and Hades.
The Water Clan was even rarer, almost non-existent—and since most of them spoke human language, most of the Water Clan members captured by Mortalian were killed by Conrad Coz, while the remaining high-ranking Water Clan member was imprisoned by Mortalian alone.
[Hehehehehe.]
As Hades quipped, the Death Guard is a very energy-efficient legion, with very little lighting in its usual areas, let alone their dungeons, where only a small lamp provides a faint glow.
For the Tau people with poor eyesight, they were horrified to see a dark and emaciated monster writhing and crawling from the center of the dungeon, making inhuman noises. If there were any Tau people among them who understood human language, they could tell that the monster was actually speaking human language.
[Starting with the Fire Clan.]
Conrad hissed, enjoying the sound of the terrified little creatures screaming. He deliberately crawled over, watching the huddled Tau huddle together in even greater fear—
It's truly touching; these Tau people even gather the wounded and disabled in the very center, while the strong individuals surround them.
Conrad casually thought of it and grabbed the head of a Fire Clan member with his sharp claws. In the Primarch's hands, the Tau was like a toy. The usually calm and brave Fire Clan member was now terrified. It wanted to scream, but Conrad stuck out his tongue and licked it. Most of the Tau's face immediately hissed and melted, revealing the flesh and bone underneath.
How strange.
Conrad said that, by accident, the doll's head in his hand had shattered, and the Fire Clan member collapsed limply, forcing the Lord of the Night to find another target.
Their physical strength is even lower than that of an average human.
【Yes. 】
Mortarian replied casually that he had no interest in watching Conrad play cat and mouse; unless there was extreme hatred or tactical necessity, Mortarian preferred to kill the opponent outright.
The secret lies in their technology.
That's why Hades needs these little blue guys.
The Pale Lord drew bottles and jars from his waist, the test tubes gleaming with an ominous aura between his fingers.
What puzzles me is that they are not sensitive to psionic energy and the warp.
Mortarian said that this meant he could no longer add any numerological masterpieces to these potions, and could only rely on physical pharmacology and toxicology.
Conrad smacked his lips, placed another corpse down, and the Lord of the Night closed his eyes, then opened them again.
【indeed,】
Conrad said that warriors had emerged among the Tau people, and two of the tallest Tau people stepped forward, hurling insults at them. Conrad understood that they were being rebuked for their inhumanity.
But judging from their movements, they don't seem to want to fight Conrad.
To make it more fun, Conrad leaped into the ceiling and then stretched out his long arms to pull the little guys up. The Tau huddled together in terror, looking up, but could only see a bloody blackness.
Soon after, the screams of their kind, along with pieces of flesh and corpses, turned into rain and fell down.
【pity,】
The Lord of the Night commented,
Such a morally superior yet fragile race... if their souls were any deeper, they would be the true darlings of the Comoros.
Perhaps the Dark Eldar wouldn't even need an Empire; they would simply capture and exterminate the Tau.
Unfortunately, the Tau were weak in psionic energy, which is probably why the Dark Eldar didn't hunt them down. However... the Eldar have already been wiped out.
Thinking of this, Conrad chuckled again.
【…】
Mortarian sometimes wondered if Comoros, that now-destroyed city of sin, hadn't been destroyed, might have been a place where he could hide his identity and have some fun.
After all, biotechnology in Comoros has reached a whole new level.
But Comoros is destroyed, just as Mortarion was imprisoned at his desk.
【then.】
Death said that Conrad caught the potion in his hand, and the Lord of the Night casually released it, and a faint mist immediately rose from the ground.
This was prepared according to your request.
Mortarian finally became interested, staring intently at the Tau people, observing the olfactory slits on their foreheads and the changes in their skin.
Hallucinations, heightened senses, decreased IQ, and impaired limb control.
Mortalian stroked his chin thoughtfully, watching Conrad hop around among a bunch of tiny insects, their juices splashing everywhere.
This was intended for Conrad to infiltrate the rear, so it is slightly less corrosive—after all, the Tau armored units in the rear are less protective.
But if he wanted to apply it to the front lines... Mortarion would need to corrode the armor of the Tau soldiers so that his potion could reach their flesh.
Only when Mortarion has acquired three of the potions specifically designed to combat the Tau people will he sound the charge.
....................................
[Visionary Enclave]
"Be optimistic, soldier."
Inside the crimson XV8 mech, the towering Tau warrior is encouraging his comrades, for after all, things have become less than optimistic since the fall of the sun.
The Fall of the Day—it happened just three days ago. Three days ago, the human empire's fleet seemed to emerge abruptly from the void, and then, at a speed unimaginable to the Tau, it directly beheaded all the Tau ships that were far from the planet's protective perimeter.
It's unimaginable, it's unimaginable.
On some planets with good observation conditions, the Tau even saw those small, lit dots in space with the naked eye—those were their proud Guardian-class motherships, which ended their lives in a flash of fire.
This was tantamount to annihilation for the Tau, who had just successfully defeated the Imperial Raven Guards under Commander Shadowsun.
What the Tau people found even more unacceptable was that their observation matrix transmitted even more astonishing images.
A pale and terrifying behemoth is now swaggering across the star system of the Vision Enclave and the Bay of Damocles. Clearly, the Empire has declared this star system its own and does not believe that the Tau are capable of defeating them.
They are right.
In the short term, the Tau people were indeed unable to muster a navy to fight the Empire. They could only stand on the ground and watch helplessly as the Empire's ships approached the planet's defenses threateningly.
Within a single day, planetary transport between the Farseeing Enclave and the Bay of Damocles was completely severed. Now, the planets are isolated from each other, gazing at each other across the distance, unable to support one another.
The situation was urgent, so in a remote corner far from the human empire, Foresight personally boarded a small boat with extremely stealth capabilities to negotiate an alliance with the Tau Empire. Just now, their planet had received notification of the alliance between Foresight's enclave and the Tau Empire.
For the purpose of maintaining stability, the last footage transmitted back by the Guardian-class mothership was not made public. Even Commander Kageyo claimed to feel dizzy after seeing the footage.
The footage was immediately transmitted back to the core of the Tau Empire. On the core planet, all the Aethers saw the footage. Before the other Tau people realized what was happening, the Aethers already knew—an extinction war awaited them.
…………
"This shouldn't be the case."
A certain ethereal being with bright blue skin spoke, its forehead smooth and full, a blue gem affixed to the top of its slit, its complexion quite unpleasant.
"Why has the Human Empire mobilized so many troops?"
The response was a debate among the Aetherians. Perhaps ordinary Tau people wouldn't understand what it was, but as the highest leadership of the Empire, the Aetherians understood it the moment they saw the scene.
But first, they need to deal with requests to dissolve their alliance from their allies—the day after the Fallen Day, two races submitted requests to Aether to dissolve their alliance, while more allies are clearly watching them.
Faced with overwhelming external threats, the alien races were clearly less "united" than the Tau race.
The Ethers are now facing a predicament. If they do not agree to terminate the treaty, these heartless alien races will surely try to stir up trouble within the Tau Empire to force Tau to break the treaty with them.
If the agreement to terminate the contract is agreed to outright, the remaining allies will likely flee immediately.
This is extremely bad.
For the Tau, some of their allies possess ultra-long-range travel capabilities, meaning they can retreat directly when the Human Empire concentrates its firepower to attack the Tau, but the Tau, who have not yet unlocked ultra-long-range travel, cannot do so.
Despair spread among the Aetherians. After a day and a night of debate, despite opposition and doubt, the Aetherians finally reached some decisions, and the Tau Empire began to be mobilized.
The day after the Ethers left the meeting, all the Earth Clan members in the ultra-long-range navigation domains of the Tau Empire were assembled.
If the Tau Empire is ultimately doomed, then at least they need to leave behind a spark of hope, just as they did back then.
........................
"Lord Vision has already allied with Lord Shadow Sun, and we will fight side by side under the guidance of the Supreme Path of Goodness."
The UI wearing the XV8 said, but even so, the display panel on its combat suit showed that its soldiers were currently in a state of agitation.
This is understandable; in fact, the UI was also quite uneasy. The Tau fleet had been utterly defeated and crushed, while the human Empire even seemed to be in a state of confusion—
Their fleet scurried through the airspace, seemingly trying to find the "real" Tau naval forces.
Humans didn't even take their navy seriously.
The vast disparity in strength made the soldiers on the front lines nervous, but as a matter of duty for the UI, it had to comfort its soldiers.
"The enemy fleet has not approached our planet—they are still afraid of the shield generators and turret arrays we have set up in planetary orbit. Our planetary defense network is enough to stop them. If they want to cross it, they will have to pay a heavy price."
…………
[The first planet, who gets there first?]
【? ! 】
When did you become so kind, Mortarian?
[It's just a test. I don't think their planetary warfare will be as weak as their naval warfare; it'll be over after a little probing.]
Mortarian hadn't even had his fill of fighting yet.
That's it.
This outcome made Mortarion consider whether the next test should involve sending a weaker army into battle instead of directly using the Death Guards.
【…】
Hehehe, let's draw lots then... Mortarion.
………………
"Even if they penetrate our defenses, the already heavily damaged enemy will not withstand our attacks. Under the leadership of Lord Foresight and Lord Shadow, we will annihilate the enemy at minimal cost, just like every victory we have achieved before—"
The sky suddenly became bright and dark, and the soldier facing ui suddenly raised his hand with trembling hands, pointing to the sky behind ui, and made an incomprehensible sound.
?
The UI slowly turned its head, and in the system's auxiliary vision, which was filled with the urgent banging of alarms, it saw countless alien ships and fragments of the turret arrays in planetary orbit falling into the atmosphere.
However, those alien ships looked like charging knights, rushing towards the land.
………………
Ah, it's me.
Mortarian held up the Tau bone with his fingertips, clearly indicating that the goddess of fate was guiding him to a swift victory.
…………
In the dimly lit command room, Death casually opened the star map, and then poured the poison he carried with him onto the small planet.
Everything was so orderly and somewhat boring, except that the background music was still Conrad's strange screams.
On the first day of the war, the Imperials destroyed all Tau ships in the Visionary Enclave and the Bay of Damocles and declared war on the Tau Empire.
On the third day of the war, under Mortarion's leadership, the Imperium of Man began its attempt to invade the Tau planet.