Spitting blood, Lucretius Corvo fell to the ground, and his weapon was unforgivably freed from his hands. Anger came from the bottom of his heart, but more than that, shame—he inevitably felt shame because it had never happened before.

He's been through so many wars that he's never had a weapon out of his hands.

But he didn't have time to feel sorry for himself any longer, and gritting his teeth, Lucretius began to crawl, trying to get close to his sword.

It wasn't the first time he had faced such a desperate situation, and Anderman had been besieged by the Bearers for seven days, during which time Lucretius had seen everything.

The first was their proud orbital weapons platform, which was forced off the assembly line after destroying eleven enemy ships. Loyal servos are executed by burning their brains one by one in the global broadcast of communications, and the Bearer laughs loudly.

Then it was Starport that suffered, and it had little ability to resist. The Whisperers dismembered it with artillery fire and countless landing craft, as well as all the people inside. After that, they began to attack the ground of Anderment, and the darkness immediately came, and they couldn't wait.

Lucretius stayed on the front line almost always during the Great Expedition, and he witnessed the light of human reason that belonged to the Great Expedition more than once.

Under the banner of the Empire, one world after another, full of darkness and ignorance, broke free from the shackles of religion and ignorance and united again. Through Imperial Truth, they were born again.

But now it's different, the sun is obscured by dark clouds, the sky is starting to rain rancid acid, and black fog is rolling in from the far end of the horizon. It is clear that the Whisperers did not visit Anderman alone, they brought something else with them.

Something enough to make a person lose all sanity.

Crawling, Lucretius finally grabbed his power sword. The sword was awarded at the end of a war in his third year of service, and came from the private collection of his then commander. It's definitely not Seiko-grade, but the Power Sword just needs to be handy.

Lucretius quickly stood up, no longer visible of the previous injuries, the blade converled, the disintegration force field hummed, and he rotated his hands so that the blade was horizontal in front of him, and his breathing had become calm.

Two Whisperers lunged at him from the darkness, one without a helmet and with a blood-stained face that looked incredibly young. He didn't have much rigorous training, as you can see.

Unlike Lucretius, he was the product of acquired maturation, a newborn creature with the name of the Bearer. With the body and strength of Astarte, but without the will and skill to fight, even cruelty is not enough.

Most of his companions were the same, and the veterans of the Bearers had long since become a different picture, easily distinguishable, and this matter had even become common knowledge shared by the loyal forces on Andermont.

In the face of the attack, Lucretius coldly handed out his sword, and a silver light swept through, and one of his enemies let out a cry of pain and took a few steps back, blood rolling from between the gaps in his breastplate.

Without giving him time to breathe, the Ultramarines reciprocated with a ferocious kick that kicked him out of the way, freeing his hands to deal with the unhelmeted idiot.

The latter obviously didn't realize how dangerous this was, but he was just excited that he might kill an Ultramarines company commander with his own hands, and the chainsaw sword in his hand shouted wildly and raised it high, leaving the door wide open, without the slightest defensive intent.

Lucretius calmly spun his wrist and swung his sword again. With a simple swing, the chainsaw sword shattered in half. Metal screamed, jagged teeth splashed, and the excitement on the bearer's face stiffened into a shadow of fear.

He raised his sword and made a gesture of beheading, causing the man to retreat, and the tactical goal was easily achieved. He immediately lowered his hand, delivered the blade with precision, pierced through the chest of his foe, and spun it in a sharp circle to make sure he had no more strength to resist before he uttered his taunt.

"Never go toe-to-toe with chainsaw weapons and power weapons, didn't your commander teach you this, mongrel?"

Lucretius drew his sword and strode forward. The terrified corpse fell to the ground heavily, and the remaining man was about to get up at this moment, and it would not be a good thing to greet him.

Lucretius simply beheaded him. The skull fell to the ground, and he was finally willing to let himself begin to gasp.

Leaning against the dark rock wall of the mountain, he vomited a mouthful of blood again, and the helmet was full of fishy smell.

A wave of pain was coming from his abdomen, and not long ago, two explosive bombs had pierced the protection of the power armor. With experience, he didn't even have to look to know what was going on there, nothing more than a blur of flesh and blood.

But it doesn't matter, it will take some time for the remaining Bearers to find him.

Lucretius forced himself to his feet, and shouts and shrill explosions rang from the depths of the cavern, and he expelled them from his world and began to move forward, leaving behind a winding crimson path.

After a few turns, he jumped off a platform and stepped into a glittering cavern. It's full of cables and instruments, and only two people are busy here. Behind the cave was a deep darkness with a breeze blowing from it.

The moment Lucretius arrived, they sensed movement, and one of them immediately raised his gun to aim, while the other took out some kind of glowing round object from his red robe, which was ticking.

"How's it going?" Lucretius asked, he hadn't even told them to put down their guns or the dangerous arc grenade. The man with the gun immediately heard who he was, and immediately put down the gun, jumped over the cables and instruments, and stood in front of Lucretius and saluted.

Lucretius's question was answered by another person standing in the instrument, his voice fitting the stereotype of Mechanicalism as a stiff, rigid, and emotionless synthesized electronic synthesizer.

"Awful." Father Osmiolm of Technology commented mercilessly. "There is not one in ten ground forces, and almost no one responds to our broadcasts, Company Commander Corvo. And I seriously doubt that damn solar storm destroyed the Holy Titan that we didn't have time to turn underground. ”

"Come to think of it, at least you won't need to spend a lot of time researching them in the future." Lucretius said he wanted to try to make a joke to liven up the atmosphere — and that joke was clearly a failure.

Sergeant Harpane, a member of the Otrama auxiliary, who was standing in front of Lucretius, immediately told Lucretius with a sigh what he thought of the joke.

The priest turned his head, his electronic eyes flickering a few times, and the green light turned red for a moment.

After that, he spoke slowly.

Maintaining the machines of the gods is a privilege that only a few people deserve, and what better way to embody the power of the gods than the Titans? Company Commander Corvo, the level of joking is simply as bad as your level of human sophistication. ”

Lucretius shook his head, ignoring his taunts. He asked, "So, at least we're doing well underground?" ”

"That's right." Osimiom nodded. "Shameful traitors are being slaughtered by our troops, but I doubt the three of us will ever live to see them. If you want me to say, Company Commander Corvo, we shouldn't be here anymore at all. It's already occupied by the Whisperers. ”

"This is an outpost of the Anderman's underground cavern system, and one of the few communications stopovers that can be connected to the surface." Lucretius coughed twice. "How are we going to get in touch with the ground forces if we're not here?"

"You have a point, but I still can't believe I agreed to your plan half an hour ago." The priest grumbled in his synthesized voice, and then walked out of the apparatus.

He came to Lukeley, looked at him carefully, and came to a conclusion.

"If you don't get medical assistance, you'll probably only have a few dozen minutes to live, Your Excellency Company Commander."

"I've got medical bandages here, and some medical potions." Sergeant Harpane said, untying a medical kit that was stuck on his belt. "Maybe this will prolong your death, Company Commander Lucretius."

"It didn't work, those two bullets are still in my body." Lucretius said calmly, raised his hand, and slowly took off his helmet. Blood immediately poured out, steaming all over the ground.

After doing this, he put on his helmet again. The technical priest turned his head to look at the sergeant and asked a question.

"Sergeant Harpane, do you really think that your auxiliary medical supplies can work against Commander Corvo?"

"At least give it a try." Harpane said as he opened the package and removed the bandages and potions inside. "It's not going to get any worse, unless I stick both hands into the wounds of Company Commander Lucretie."

The priest shook his head, and the complicated third hand behind his back swayed to the front, and he reached out to remove the handsaw and handed it to Harpane.

"Use this to cut the edges of his power armor wounds flat and see if they work. If we're lucky, Captain Corvo's death could probably be pushed back a bit. ”

"Thank you for informing me." Lucretius said. "It's very comforting to me."

His voice had become faint.

"You're welcome, I've always liked to have a precise start and end with a precise time, and it's beautiful in everything." Osimiom replied, shaking his mechanical hand, and walked to the cave door.

Two other arms poked out from beneath the bulging red robe, also made of steel, but not as bulky as the servo arms behind him. In his left hand, he holds a phosphorus musket known as a snake gun, and in his right hand he holds three arc grenades.

A few minutes later, there was a sound of footsteps above them. This meant that the Bearer had followed the path Lucretius had left behind, and Harpane's hand was not trembling in the slightest.

He calmly flattened the handsaw, letting the monomolecular blade cut through the last piece of jagged clay steel that might have cut his arm. Then he grabbed the potion and began to inject Lucretius in turn.

Osimiom at the entrance of the cave raised the snake gun in his hand and pulled the trigger firmly. A flaming orb burst out from the muzzle of the serpent's gun, striking the dark cavern in an instant.

The attack did no harm to the Bearers, and even attracted their attention. A barrage of bombs rained down on the cavern's mouth, and Osimiom was already out of place.

Attract their attention, that's exactly what he's about.

The technocracy calmly leaned against the rock wall, his left hand retracted under his robes, and when he reached out again, the phosphorus musket was gone, replaced by a rugged weapon of unknown model.

Its large, connected four muzzles made the weapon look a little absurd, and after a few dozen seconds, the sound of jumping and heavy objects falling above the cavern was heard.

At this moment, the priest did not hesitate to throw the three arc grenades upwards and squeeze the trigger of the gun in his left hand.

He didn't even need to aim, and the bullets hit three arc grenades in the air along a calculated trajectory, three for three, and the remaining bullets spun and hit the only narrow platform that could lead to it.

In the midst of the violent explosion and the throbbing arc of electricity, the priest's electronic synthesized sound sounded calmly.

"We need to retreat immediately, sergeant."

"Understood." Harpane said. "However, Company Commander Lucretius was seriously injured, and he had not stopped the bleeding, which was really abnormal. And, how are we going to move him? ”

"There's no need to worry about that." The priest popped out his servo arm, which clicked in the dark. "My servo arm can even drag a whole piece of adamantite if necessary, and Captain Corvo is nothing compared to a whole piece of adamantite."

"You've dragged a whole piece of adamantite?"

"I've been working with Company Commander Lucretius for a long time, Sergeant. He had returned from Nostramo with half a boatload of gold. ”

The priest chuckled twice in his mechanical synth voice and walked up to them, his servo arm reaching forward and snapping onto Lucretius' left shoulder armor.

"Let's go now, it's time for this brave but effective suicide plan to come to an end, we need to gather our troops and concentrate on counterattacking the Bearers."

"Understood. But I have a bad premonition about it. ”

"What hunch, sergeant?"

"Their offensive is not as fierce as it was at the beginning." Harpane picked up his gun and lowered his goggles, the U-shaped markings on his helmet glistening in the darkness. "The more depraved and blasphemous traitors are gone, where do you think they have gone?"

"I don't know, but that's not my biggest concern right now." Said the priest. "I'm more concerned about where the pharmacist is."

They walked into the darkness, and the wind howled in the cave.

——

The gun's fire flashed through the porthole of the Makulag's main bridge, and it unmistakably struck a Whisperer battleship, which was smashed in two by the cannon in a silent explosion and deadly violence.

The stars twinkled, the surface of the sun belonging to the Andermans system shimmered with a pitch-black dead light, and the other seven Whisperer ships only now realized what had happened.

They tried to get out of Andman's orbit, but it was too late. Robert Killiman calmly waved his right hand, and the torrent of plasma energy, which could only be described by the word destruction, streaked through the dark vacuum and struck three of them again.

The color of the explosion was as pure as a jewel, but Robert Killiman had no admiration for beauty in his heart.

In fact, he didn't even feel the emptiness that had come after his revenge.

Because this is not revenge at all.

"Where's their main fleet?!" Marius Gage roared around him, urging the crew to hand over the radar's work report to him with greater efficiency.

He himself kept an eye on the probes, trying to figure out the possible presence of the Bearers in the first place. And Robert Killiman knew in his heart that the Bearers were no longer here, at least the Great Army was gone.

He stared down at the holographic star map, tapping his finger on it. For some reason, his heart was calm, and there was no joy or sorrow.

After another two minutes, all of the Bearer ships were destroyed, and a report was presented to him. With a cursory glance, Killiman tossed it onto the podium, directing the Flashes of Maculag to approach Anderman's orbit.

In the rhythm of the machines and the confusion of the people, a faint broadcast signal from the surface was captured by the Glory of Macurag.

"Play." Kiriman said, holding his sword in his left hand with a calm expression.

The crew did as they were told.

"This is Lucretius Corvo, the commander of the 90th Company of the Ultramarines, and I am speaking on behalf of Andrés. Due to the effects of the solar storm, we have moved all hands underground. Whoever hears the announcement, look for it nearby."

Killiman closed his eyes and didn't listen to the words that followed.

He took a few deep breaths, and an inference quickly formed in his mind. It was forged by a combination of extreme hatred and shame, watered by anger, and finally clothed by his reason—with his eyes closed, Robert Killiman issuing a command.

"Inform the fleet, leaving five ships behind to help Anderman's loyal forces. The other ships reversed course and headed for Maculag. The Whisperers' goal is Maculag, and it always has been. All they do is a trick, a simple tactic to drag on time. ”

Marius Gage roared for him: "Go to Macurag!" ”

"There's no need to panic, Gage." Robert Killiman opened his eyes and calmly admonished his First War Commander. "They want to repeat the tragedy of Couss, but the situation in Makurag is no longer the same as that of Couss."

"If they dare to enter the system of Macurag, they will be discovered by the advance fleet. Even if they do have the ability to disable the orbital weapon platform and shield system one more time, we will be able to get there in time. ”

Gage looked at his original with an expression that looked like he had a thousand words to say. But in the end, he only held back a very simple rebuttal.

"But what if we don't make it in time, Primordial?"

Killiman just smiled and didn't answer. Gage was slightly stunned, and then suddenly remembered something.

"Yes." The Lord of Maculag nodded at him. "They don't have a chance of winning."

In the first chapter, there are ten thousand.

(End of chapter)