Chapter 225 Lighthouse
(music performance)
The war eagle flies in the sky, as fast as a shooting star.
A lightning flag hangs on the window. Outside the flag is a pasture, with several cows and sheep grazing on the grass.
Quiet. There was not a breath of wind in the pasture, and the grassland was very quiet. Is it nighttime? No way of knowing. Airy and spacious, with dark gold lighting. Everything is calm except for the symbolic flight of the eagle.
As the light gradually dimmed, two male voices sounded, deep and conveying sadness.
Voice 1 (thick and deep):
“The hunter in the tent is our Khan.”
“His name is Chagatai. He returned yesterday Our grassland..."
"So we waited outside the tent."
silence.
Voice 2 (worried):
“They have been sitting here all night...no response...”
Voice 1:
"Yes...he came with his brother."
silence.
The lights are on the tent. Saw two figures sitting opposite each other. Incense burns in a bronze censer.
A tall and strong man removed the gold edge of his neck guard and untied the leather hairband of his black hair. Black hair spread over the ivory white armor.
Across from him sat another man, slightly shorter. Wearing a dark blue robe, he closed his eyes and was immersed in thinking.
(Music stops)
——"Jaghatai Khan: Song of the Eagle"
Magnus walked into the signal receiving hall of the Ray of Light, and his appearance barely stopped the servitors and operators from being busy. Those oil-coated machines hummed, smoke spread out from the gaps between plastic and metal inside the detection array and the meditator, and the viscous liquid flowing in the pipes seemed to inject a hot pulse into the entire room that was in constant motion.
He is not familiar with this place, and machinery and technology are definitely not areas he is proficient in. But he had to come here today.
"I am Communications Officer Murray, Lord Primarch." The mortal Communications Officer held the communications receiver and stepped across the pipes on the ground. His movements were as fast as the floor was hot enough to burn his feet through his boots. , "We are analyzing the source of the signal!"
Magnus raised his palm, and this short gesture calmed the communication officer's anxiety. "What's the result now?"
"Coming from the edge of Ultramar, we are still locating. The composition of this signal is different from all the signals that can be received before. We are not sure who can create this kind of alternative signal. I promise, sir ! The broadcast circuits and communication units never received it!”
Magnus thought briefly before speaking. He didn't need to emphasize a meaningless dignity through silence, so the length of his thinking was limited to two mortal blinks.
“The unknown draws the boundaries of the known, and the emergence of the boundary means room for expansion. Beyond the boundary is the choice of progress or destruction, but now someone has taken the first step.” Magnu Si said, "I don't question the ability of anyone here, crew. Because I know less about this signal than you do."
The light in his unobstructed single eye changed, and finally settled in a Like liquid molten gold in color.
“I have entered the ocean of meditation,” he said, his voice superimposing a prominent joy on each syllable, “catching a flash of interstellar communication in the light and shadow of the etheric ocean. I have found nothing. , but the hall is flashing with this signal. Why do you think that is, Murray?"
"A...signal you didn't detect?"
Magnus smiled. The warmth in his eyes almost set the communications officer's soul on fire.
"A cosmic signal not based on the Warp." the Primarch emphasized. "Can you imagine, Communications Officer?"
"Very unusual, Legion Master."
In the Primarch's exclusive training cage, Angron was laid down and torn to pieces The fighting servitor, which replaced the chain saw of the arm and the exposed piston, added a crisp knocking sound to the dull sound when it landed.
The Primarch opened the cage door and stepped out. It slammed behind him.
"Yes, my father." Kahn replied, "The instruments are reporting, but the astropaths know nothing. Their perceptions have failed."
"Failed?" Angron repeated, "Their minds are intact, and each heart is beating with a mixture of loss and curiosity. Our astropaths and navigators are unscathed. This is not a failure, Karn."< br>
He moved his fingers and picked up the towel hanging beside the training cage to wipe the sweat.
"The signal comes from the border of Ultramar. It flashes periodically in all directions and the intensity is very stable." Kahn said, showing a thoughtful expression.
Angron would have liked to see him show more personal emotion, and there was no point in pretending to be cold and machine-like in front of a Primarch who could communicate with anyone else.
“Not only the most sensitive cutting-edge signal receivers, but more than eighty percent of the available signal equipment captured the obvious jump in the parameters at that moment when the signal began to flash for the first time.”
< br>He was silent for a while.
"I think this is a broadcast, my father."
"I believe you are right," Angron said, looking farther away than the walls of the Resolute Resolve. place.
"And Perturabo must have received this signal. If the Iron-Blooded has not sent a star message within an hour, we can believe that this is what he did."
"The Iron-Blooded sent Come to Startalk?"
"Leave professional work to the right person" Robert Guilliman stood behind Perturabo in the Ironblood workshop, even as his brother was busy. He was also rarely able to keep quiet when observing various complex parameters. "Of course I understand this truth. Connor and Euton both taught me not to put all the responsibility on my shoulders..."
"But why was that lighthouse lit! Of course. "Brother, I am definitely not blaming you. Although you and I have differences about the Pharos Lighthouse, I know that you respect Ultramar's autonomy." Guilliman said eagerly, with a little bit of Ultra in each word. Rama's accents came one after another.
Although accidents in his home made him worried, it did not make him lose his mind and blame the brothers he had entrusted to his trust.
"I can't contact my other self right now, Robert," Perturabo said, keeping his emotions in check. One end of the cable was like a dark cable connected to several control motherboards, making him seem to be the master of this room. "But my scattered will has not returned. This shows that everything has not been derailed."
"In addition, The influence range of this signal has been calculated. Except for the first radiated signal, which was almost close to Terra, subsequent stable signals are limited to Ultramar and the surrounding small-scale star areas, and will not affect navigation or other normal operations. The matter caused harm. Rogal Dorn, you are here."
Robert Guilliman turned to look back. Dorn put down his hand, and the sound of his knuckles tapping on the doorframe merged into the analysis machine. Toggle disk sound. "What's going on, Perturabo?" Rogal Dorn asked, walking steadily to Perturabo's side and checking the scanner's sight glass.
"The other me was testing the workings of the Pharos Lighthouse, when it suddenly lit up completely." Perturabo made room for Dorn to accommodate another Primarch, And it will not involve the position of the neural cables that he is currently connected to. "Look at the data yourself."
Dawn quickly read the numbers scrolling on the screen. "How many planets have been affected?"
"It depends on how many habitable planets there are in Ultramar."
"An optimistic estimate is that there are at least hundreds. They were alarmed... ...No." Guilliman said, pausing and a new thought entered his mind.
Now that the light of the beacon has shone across Ultramar, Macragge should not give up the opportunity. If he can prove that the lighthouse is controlled by the Ultramarines, even if the lighthouse goes out, this will be an eternal proof of his hidden capital and goodwill.
"They are awakened." He stepped forward and walked to the other side of Perturabo, thinking about something that was still in its infancy and saying no more.
——
“We are similar. Your essence is bound to the body, we are imprisoned in the outer skin. This is our only connection. It is enough for us to pay attention to each other. Free us and you will be rewarded. We will Part of the galaxy that seeks us. They betray us. They will regret it."
Perturabo surveyed the shadow of the quantum web before him, observing its spiral shape.
A disembodied figure, floating in tones of brass and turquoise, imposes a humanly understandable image on the structure of Perturabo's mind derived from human society: arms, legs body, head, and golden-green torso. When the creature speaks, its mouth glows.
“You belittle the Emperor, but you don’t know that he is not the god of the human race; you use words to boast about your greatness, but I see a broken thing with a broken mind; you compare with me, but I don’t see it. The only thing you've done is show me a fantasy, and I don't see the value in that."
Zahurash's anger is reflected in the vibration of every particle, lacking the stimulation of chemical hormones. This may not be called anger.
"Look. Look. The lighthouse is shining. For you. For us."
Suddenly, time seems to be suspended, and space expands to the infinite margins.
Perturabo seemed to be standing at an endless crossroads. Every node in the vast network in front of him shone brightly. More than a thousand different and colorful pictures appeared around him at the same time, all the time. Instead of high-speed iterations—thousands of different shots—each person in the painting captures a common signal, like a messenger traveling through time and space, stable, bright, and flickering from the depths of the universe.
In each different scene, Perturabo saw countless different emotions.
The first is fear. A pair of fearful eyes stare at the instrument that reacts suddenly, fearing to face a civilization that is enough to create such a strong signal across the galaxy. Then came doubts. The hearts of scientists from different planets accelerated, running between machines and recording every parameter excitedly.
More people in different cultures and backgrounds, who have not yet reconnected with other civilizations after the deep storm of the old night, spent thousands of years immersed in bone-chilling darkness. In a chaotic and lost place, Perturabo saw the dancing light in their eyes. Every point of light reflected human beings' desire and awe for the unknown.
In rare scenes, scholars who are still able to truly observe the starry sky are realizing the meaning behind everything they experience: what they see is a pattern they have never seen before in many years of observation. , that is, there are still people in the universe waving to them. Their excitement and anticipation were enough to overwhelm all fears.
While the ruler Zahurash was satisfied with its power, Perturabo saw thousands of emotions of the entire human race unfolding before him. He realized that he was being attracted by these pictures, even though dangerous aliens still had to be dealt with, but at this moment, an absolutely unfamiliar emotion suddenly rose from his heart.
He savored human excitement, curiosity, and even worries and doubts, realized the subtle connection between himself and the universe, and felt that he was becoming a small node in the universe, closely connected with everyone connected.
When he was taught that he was only a mortal, he tried his best to deny it. However, in this strange and wonderful moment, an unprecedented sense of connection pulled him into this group.
He tried to digest the importance of this moment, knowing that these images, the expressions of all these people, would become part of the grand epic of Ultramar being reunited, and even the entire human world being reunited as one.
The impact on Ultramar when the Pharos Beacon was lit was perhaps a morning star-like microcosm of the Terran Torch's solar glow that lit up the warp.
It’s all about gambling. He thought of these words again.
He closed his eyes, then opened them.
"Do you control the Pharos Lighthouse, Zahurash?" he asked.
"They built lighthouses. Instruments built by betrayers. We are bound to provide energy." Zahurash's voice became a steady rumble, its pride in the fixed expansion and contraction of the particle cloud Projection, "Once we break away. A thousand times more powerful. The gods of reality are us."
"If you break away," Perturabo asked, "will this lighthouse still operate?"
>
"Eight fragments, we eat the others. The others are not eaten. Stupid! Want to use the betrayer's mountains? We can give more. More."
"Pointless Signals prove nothing," said Perturabo to Zahurash's radiance.
Zahurash's anger shook the entire mountain range, but the bound fragments could not even carve a fatal gap into the black stone. This makes its anger comical.
“The last time!” Zahurash’s quantum cloud kept changing dazzlingly, “What do you want!”
“Give the signal meaning, the ruler Zahurash.” Turabo said, "Show me this last thing and I and my companions will change your situation."
——
"The Empire is waiting."
Morse compiled what the Pharos Lighthouse was broadcasting to all of Ultramar, wondering just how much Perturabo had done while he stood there, motionless as a stone statue.
The next moment, he looked to his right.
"You're here?" Morse was a little surprised. "Myself? Are you free? Where is your fleet? Aren't you on an expedition?"
"This place is on the way to an expedition." The visitor said calmly, "The vision has never been so clear."
>
He turned his head, his black hair hanging outside the golden armor relief: "The light of the lighthouse shines like day, so I came here looking for a way."
"Let me guess, you just came to see Robert Guilliman to see when he would return to Terra. Then you were attracted by the light of the lighthouse that Perturabo was toying with?" Mors asked.
The emperor smiled and said nothing.
Morse wanted to say a few more words, and Perturabo suddenly woke up from his stiff state: "Morse, there is a place here that can be used for energy supply——"
An unknown god-like thing has awakened. He persuaded Zahurash to work with his companions to change its situation, and prepared to work with Morse to find ways to make full use of this powerful energy or strengthen the seal. The emperor suddenly appeared in front of him, letting his second half The words dissipated in shock.
"A fragment." The Emperor said slowly. "Let me see."
(End of this chapter)