"It's impossible, do you hear me?" Valentus Dollo snapped. "There's no way the anti-psionic forces can leave Macurag, especially as the subspace storm gets worse."

"But—"

"—no but! Terra, Wharton, who the hell suggested this to you? ”

"Does this matter still need to be 'raised'? Lord Yingjie? Anderman needs anti-psionic troops! The capital of the Southern Division is under siege by the damned Whisperers! ”

"I can only assign you a maximum of five more warbands." Valentus said. "Five, plus ten battle barges, that's all, Wharton. The defense forces of Makulag are empty enough. ”

"You'd better get them over quickly, sir." The man on the other end of the communication replied gloomily. "We're going to need a lot of people to wipe out those Aurelian mongrels."

Talasha Yuton leaned on her cane and shook her head helplessly.

She'd heard too many of these arguments these days. And Valentus Dorlo, one of the four heroes of Otlama, was present every time

He's a brave and fearless man, like all Ultramarines, but he's also a stubborn man.

At this point, Judon especially disliked. Just as she didn't like Robert Kiliman's occasional stubbornness, but what could she do to change it?

The housekeeper could only make suggestions, and she had guarded this thunder pool, and for so many years, she had not crossed half a step. After a few more minutes, Valentus and Wharton on the other end of the communication finally finished arguing.

Yingjie angrily left the contemplative array in the study, his hand armor clenched violently, and his Seiko MK3 in the opposite color showed a dull gray in the light of the setting sun.

"How's the situation around Macurag, Lord Valentus?" She asked, her right hand still resting on top of her cane.

She has not aged very much in recent years, but she is still thin, and her white hair is neatly groomed and tied at the back of her head.

The beauty of her youth has not been eroded by time, but has become more impressive by the passage of time, such as her blue eyes, which are so bright by her willpower, that sometimes they look almost exactly like Robert Killiman.

"We're pretty much cut off from most of the world." Yingjie said solemnly and slowly, and walked over and helped her into a comfortable armchair.

The housekeeper did not object, and even made himself sit a little more comfortably. She placed her cane flat on her lap and stroked the lines with both hands as she waited.

She understood that Valentus had a worse second half of the sentence that he did not say.

"Connaught, Vereditian, Massari," Okruda's hero said, shaking his head. "It's a nightmare, ma'am, we're only half of the Southern Sector and the Macurag system left, subspace storms"

He looked apprehensively at the sunset outside the window and stopped talking. Yutun followed, staring at the window as well. It and what it was outside belonged to King Connaught alone, but now it belonged to Robert Killiman and many others who had access to his study.

Talasha Yudon was one of the few people who had seen two different views at the same time, and in the days of King Connaught, there weren't so many tall buildings and no Ultramarines.

At that time, Macurag was more primitive, people were passionate about what was in the sky, and they didn't know what dangers existed in the universe.

Thinking of this, Yutun couldn't help but smile.

"What makes you smile, ma'am? You haven't laughed in days. Valentus asked.

"Don't ask me what's in my mind, my lord, it's rude." Yutun suddenly feigned seriousness and said that her joke made Yingjie laugh helplessly—helplessly, but he did laugh.

Yutun picked up his cane and got up from his chair. Valentus stared at her intently, the smile faded, and worry took hold again.

"I'm almost sick these days." The housekeeper said half-jokingly. "Our mutual adult isn't here, and I don't even have an agenda to report. I can handle those things myself, but it's weird to be without him. ”

She looked up at Valentus, and suddenly said, "May I ask a question, my lord?" ”

"No one, ma'am."

"I've heard that some people in the Empire don't like it when our adults stay in Macurag all the time?"

"That's true, ma'am." Valentus replied with a slight hesitation. "Most of them are from the Ministry of Administration in Terra, or some people from the Ministry of War. They felt that the original body had put too much time and effort into the five hundred worlds. ”

The housekeeper was silent for a moment, and nodded clearly: "I understand." ”

"Ma'am?" Valentus looked at her in amazement. "What do you understand?"

"They're wary of Robert Killman, obviously, Lord Valentus." Yuton said. "In other words, they think it's not normal for a politically savvy person with five hundred genoplasms in his hand to spend too much time in his hometown."

As she spoke, she suddenly burst into a dumb smile: "Well, that doesn't sound normal. He sounded like an ambitious conspirator in such a description. ”

The corners of Si Yingjie's mouth twitched, and his expression became very strange.

Yutun looked up at him, frowning, "Wait, my lord, there won't really be anyone-"

"—let's talk about something else, ma'am." Valentus said stiffly.

Yutun looked at him in shock.

"Really?" The old housekeeper suddenly became serious. "What are they thinking? Can't they see how much the Five Hundred Worlds have contributed to the Empire? ”

"Actually, ma'am, they can see it." Valentus reminded vaguely. "But our contribution may seem like a little too much, I mean, our numbers."

He coughed and gestured.

Yutun was annoyed but paused helplessly: "The high enthusiasm for conscription has become our fault!" They can see hundreds of our warbands, but why can't they see the young people who have disappeared into the sea of stars and never returned? And their crying parents."

"Most people only see the most superficial parts, and it's not their fault, ma'am. In fact, there are also many original people who have collectively expressed their disgust with this statement. Valentus hurriedly spoke, changing the subject.

Few people in Maculag want to face an angry Lady Judon, even if it's not directed at them.

Robert Killyman's housekeeper was widely revered for his superior abilities, and it was even rumored that Robert Killiman alone was capable of fifteen contemplatives in handling government affairs, while Lady Judon was at least six.

This is of course an exaggeration, but it also somewhat reflects people's perception of her. However, the respect that the people of Macullag respect for her is not entirely due to her ability, but more because of her justice.

"Really?" As Valentus expected, after he raised the subject, the housekeeper's attention was diverted.

"Would you mind talking to me about it?" Yutun asked, his expression unexpectedly impatient.

Valentus laughed in his heart - it seems that mothers all over the world are like this, always wanting to know how their children are doing, wanting to know who their children are close to and who they are estranged from.

But he soon couldn't laugh anymore, because he remembered that the mother's son was still missing at this time.

"Of course, ma'am." Yingjie suppressed his emotions and nodded calmly. "Lord Angeland, the venerable son of the mountains, Lord of the Dogs, for example, has spoken out against this argument many times."

However, this also seems to have made him angry, and some idiots in the military department actually wanted to use the topic to transfer the auxiliary army of the war dogs to other places. The Lord of the War Dogs personally went to Terra for this purpose, and it is said that only two high-ranking officers of the gladiator unit were brought with him, and then the people of the War Department changed their tunes. ”

"What do they think?" Yutun asked incredulously. "If I'm not mistaken, the gladiator troops are all Siblings of Lord Angeland? At least the young Nukeriya who failed to participate in the selection of war dogs? ”

"You're not mistaken." Valentus smiled with an indescribably strange smile. "Some people in the world are just that stupid."

"Then, the second person to openly support the Primordial is the Lord of the Blades, Master Conrad Coetze. It's just that his opposition is closer to a threat than the Lord of War Dogs. ”

"I'm not surprised."

"And then the men joined him in opposing it."

"What?"

"Yes, ma'am, they later thought not only that our Primordial was ambitious, but that the Lord of the Blades also had a piece of the pie here. They even called him a corrupt judge."

"They. Lose your marbles? The housekeeper asked, cane-leaning, his expression confused, mixed with a hint of sympathy that shouldn't have been—she knew the way Conrad Coates and the Nightblades were doing.

This necessary evil, while unpleasant, is definitely a necessary means. With the Nightblade, careerists throughout the galaxy need to weigh whether they will be pierced through the heart by a sharp blade in a midnight dream.

"Conrad Coetzes is probably the least likely person in the entire galaxy to do such a thing. Rather, if Robert had that kind of thought, he would have been the first to stop it." Yutun said, shaking his head. "Can they be officials, will they be so stupid?"

"I don't know their level of intelligence, ma'am, maybe they just think differently than we do, or maybe they don't know much about the Lord of the Blades." Valentus shrugged. "That's normal, after all, the Nightblades are always elusive and don't show up much. Nostramo is too remote."

"Why are you still helping them talk?"

"I'm just analyzing, ma'am." Valentus said. "I have to do this to understand the logic of their thinking for a while, or I'll collapse like a contemplative with a program gone wrong."

"Your argument is too serious." Yutun shook his head. "But, personally—"

She stopped abruptly, and a shrill siren began to buzz in the room. Valentus's expression immediately changed, and he reached out and pressed the sword at his waist, and his whole person became solemn.

The door to the study was opened, and the two victorious soldiers looked at him wordlessly. The overfaced eagle helmet shimmered with gold, and the weapon in his hand buzzed and pulsed with electric light. Okruda's hero gestured to them and nodded to Talasha Yuton.

"Please evacuate quickly."

"Be careful, Lord Valentus." Under the piercing air raid sirens, the chief of internal affairs did not resist, and allowed the victorious army to protect her, but her expression was very worried.

"I will." Yingjie said solemnly.

Half an hour later, he had hurried out of the city.

It was once a farmland, but now it is the scene of an accident with thick smoke billowing out. The local defense forces were busy fighting the fire, and the farmer was at a loss to stop on the ridge not far away and look at his field, his expression dazed.

Valentus withdrew his gaze to his lieutenant, Casmir, and began to question.

"Why didn't the orbital outpost raise the alarm in advance?"

"I don't know, sir." Kasmir said, handing out a data board containing detailed records of the Makulag orbital outpost, from this morning until the fall.

With this data, Valentus keenly spotted a brief upturn. To be more accurate, he spotted a sudden explosion reading, so abrupt that it looked like an orc had suddenly appeared in the palace of Terra.

"This can't be?" Valentus said slowly, putting down the datapad and looking up into the smoke ahead. "If the data reading is normal."

"Absolutely normal." Casmir interjected. "I've checked it twelve times before you came, and the servos at the orbital outpost even protested against me. This data is fine, and if it is, it proves that our system has been compromised. ”

Valentus looked at him, then at the datapad.

"That is, this meteorite - or something." He hung the datapad on the belt around his waist. "Did it appear out of thin air in the atmosphere of Maculag?"

"Yes, my lord."

"In the name of Otlama, this is a hell of a thing." Yingjie smiled abruptly and drew the sword at his waist. The decomposition force field hummed, and the sound of drawing the sword continued, and the farmer on the ridge immediately widened his eyes.

Valentus didn't have time to pay attention to his surprise for the time being, but walked into the smoke with his sword in his hand.

It's harvest season, and the crops in this field are growing quite well, but now they're just ashes. The fire was still spreading, but the flames could not hurt the armor-clad Ultramarines, who followed Yingjie and cautiously stepped into the wheat field.

After advancing six hundred and twenty-two meters, Valentus stopped first. A deep pit appeared in front of him, and a half-ruined shuttle.

The bright livery was now covered in dirt, the left wing was broken, and the back half was simply gone, the fracture so smooth as if it had once been severed by a blade—something even stranger was now here, revealing not the interior of the cabin, but a whole sleek piece of silvery metal.

Yingjie withdrew his gaze and began to observe the fuselage. He keenly spotted an emblem. Half a emblem, to be exact. He recognized the black dragon's head, which had become abstract from the crash, but that didn't stop Valentus from using his imagination to get the answer.

He lowered his sword, called the lieutenant and five Ultramarines with an ugly expression, and jumped into the pit. He used his power sword to split open the hatch, and a corpse immediately slipped out. It was a salamander, no doubt about it, but it had been dead for a long time.

There was a huge wound in his chest, as if he had been wounded by a sword, and his bones were visible.

Valentus took a deep breath and put his arms around him, trying to get him out of the pit - but before he could finish it, a large, dark hand jerked out from behind the hatch and grabbed the corpse's left hand.

Casmir and the other Ultramarines immediately raised their guns.

"Don't." In the cabin, a low, hoarse voice struggled to spit out a monosyllable. His voice sounded terrible, as rough as swallowing a dozen blades, and very weak.

Valentus listened for a moment, the hand holding the sword suddenly trembled, he had a guess, not very likely, but.

"Your Excellency?!" After a few seconds, he made up his mind and cried out anxiously. "Lord Vulcan? Is that you?! ”

"It's me."

"Damn it, get him out!" Valentus immediately lowered his sword and roared, and half a minute later, the Lord of the Fire Dragon, who was barely human, was carried out of the cabin by them.

He was blind in one eye, and his armor was shattered, with many cracks spreading across it, all of which were wounded by weapons. Yingjie looked at the giant of giants in horror, not understanding who could have injured Vulcans like this.

"Send a medical team over and inform the hospitals in the city to get ready, the highest standard." Valentus told his lieutenant solemnly, and Casmir saluted and left the pit.

He bent down and tried to continue communicating with Vulcan, but the badly wounded Primordial was faster than him.

"Do a good job. Ready, Ultramarine."

"What preparations, sir?"

"Sky." Vulcan said with difficulty. "Falling—we, will fall. Steel, dragons, death guards."

Valentus looked at him in confusion, he should not have understood Vulcan's meaning in such abstract words. However, he met the one-eyed eye, and everything was solved.

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning, causing his brain to reboot briefly.

"Falling." The Lord of the Fire Dragon raised his hand, grabbed him by the shoulder, and read the word.

He is obviously a dying man, but his strength is too great to understand. The only thing in him that could be associated with death was his voice, the kind of murmur that Valentus had heard for an unknown number of times.

He half-knelt on the ground, took a deep breath, and activated the Legion radio.

"Level 1 warning, global martial law. I want every city to be prepared for the possibility of a massive fall, so that all orbital towers are forbidden to attack and switched to observation mode. Prepare the rapid reaction force and medical team, and notify all hospitals that they will be in a wartime state."

"Falling." Beside him, Vulcan was still whispering, and tears were slowly flowing from that one eye. Seconds later, his hand fell heavily and fell into the dirt, dissipating into the air a name he wanted to pronounce but didn't have time to pronounce.

"My lord? Lord Vulcan?! With the throne on the throne, how long will the medical team take?! He's dying! ”

Motarian

One change today, and ten thousand changes will be made up tomorrow.

(End of chapter)