Chapter 384 I'm sorry, Dorne
"The Proud One only wants to impose his hegemony on his companions." - "The Book of Lorgar"
"One hundred and seventy-one," Lorgar Counting silently in a low voice, "One hundred and seventy-two..."
Horus was briefly attracted by the image of Lorgar on the screen, curious about what his brother was counting.
Seeing the battle commander turning his gaze towards him, Lorgar Aurelion raised his head and responded with a peaceful smile. The golden inscriptions on his face were decorated with the Word Bearers' Glory Queen-class battleship Law of Faith ( Illuminated by the pure light inside the Fidelitas Lex.
Inside this glorious flagship, which is like a moving church, the Wanderer's Temple set up on the ship's spine is the usual strategic command place for those who hold the truth.
The interior decoration of the church is exquisite but not luxurious. It strictly abides by the simple rules within the Word Bearers, which represents their pursuit of moral purity and simplicity of life, as well as their rejection of all the constraints of worldly vanity.
From the angle of the camera, Horus can also see the golden Gothic words engraved around the iron altar in the center of the Wandering Temple, "He alone is above, and all below are equal."
He was about to curiously ask why Lorgar was counting the contents, when the screen symbolizing Perturabo flickered. The signal was unstable and became strong and weak, causing a large number of flickering signals. Gray and white electronic horizontal stripes.
"Perturabo?" Horus tentatively called his brother's name, "The time for our appointment is almost up."
The Iron Lord's voice passed through the cable and came from afar.
"And..." The signal was interrupted and restored after two seconds. "Five minutes."
Then, the screen of the Cheorwon space fortress where the signal source was located in the Iron Warriors went out again.
Horus held his chin helplessly and moved his gaze to the third screen that had never been lit.
The display screen of the Dark Angels is always as dark as the name of their legion.
During this period of battle, Leon and his First Legion were often in an elusive state, and their traces were difficult to confirm. Horus wondered whether the Emperor had given the First Legion too many secret weapons to achieve this. Effect.
And this secrecy continued into their combat meetings-this does not mean that Leon will not come to the meeting, but that although he will definitely appear in the meeting, when will he arrive and where will he be present? Time to leave is completely unpredictable.
Horus shook his head in his heart, feeling rare fatigue for some reason. He flipped through the battle reports on the table and began to prepare his next opening remarks.
They have opened up an entire corridor, including several planets and satellites as rear bases, and sent Astartes to stay behind to consolidate their positions deep into the Randan Empire. Now, they encountered a cluster of war satellites and the main star that controlled the satellites. This was also the place where Horus had designated the legions to meet at the beginning of the war.
In these months of battles, their progress was generally in line with or even exceeded expectations, and this was achieved under the premise that each legion mainly fought alone.
Yes, in the end they did not negotiate a clear method of tactical cooperation. The legion-style combat of the Iron Warriors and the tactical team of the Luna Wolves did not work well together. The unbridled offensive of Lorgar's Word Bearers may have been too destructive. Strong, and the Dark Angel...
"I don't want the lives of my warriors to be squandered like dirt and rocks by others." Leon spoke out and bluntly. His righteousness caused Horus to fall into self-doubt for a moment, and the reflection caused by self-doubt made him temporarily unable to refute Leon El'Jonson's words with evidence.
Okay, he thought, pinching the gold ring on his finger to get rid of the unhappiness and hesitation in his heart. Although Leon was the Emperor's eldest son, he was the first Primarch to be brought back to Terra by the Emperor himself. He was born with the responsibility of caring for his later brothers, and he always carried out the Emperor's will. Well done.
"Two hundred and thirty-three, two hundred and thirty-four..." Lorgar continued to count his numbers, and his voice rang softly in Horus's ears through the sound array, But no matter how beautiful the sound is, after reading hundreds of numbers continuously, it will make people a little anxious.
Horus asked as kindly as possible: "Lorgar, may I know what you are counting?"
"Me?" Luojia turned his attention back to the camera again, "I'm counting the gifts we can give to my father."
"Gifts? When did you secretly prepare a gift for your father?"
“Under the sun, I have not concealed anything——”
Perturabo’s screen lit up again, and the Lord of Iron opened the iron chair and looked at the small camera placed on the table. From a perspective, he looked like a mountain pouring down upon him when he sat down. Then, he raised the camera angle, revealing his serious face and the data cables connected to all directions.
The crackle of artillery fire and the roar of engines came from the public audio on his side, becoming the background sound of this meeting.
"Two minutes left, Horus," Perturabo said, "Am I the last one? No...the macrocannon array will turn another eleven and a half degrees, well...I hope I'm not late."< br>
Logar paused the count and asked: "Are you still commanding?"
"Two large companies are breaking through a planet's orbital defense network...The engines increase power, now..."
Perturabo reached out and brushed his face, reorganized the thoughts in his mind, and moved the part responsible for directing the war into the silent internal communication channel, so that he no longer needed to continue dictating orders.
"I'm ready. Leon hasn't come yet?" the Iron Lord said.
"I'm here." A low reply came. The Dark Angels' displays remained dark, but the Lion's voice was already echoing across the Primarch's strategy chamber audio systems.
Then, the silent display screen suddenly lit up.
The Lord of the First Army sat in the center of his ivory and obsidian throne, one hand resting on the finely carved armrest, and the other hand supporting his marble-like profile. Standing beside him was a dark angel, tall and thin, with curly red hair and a cold expression.
"When did you come...Forget it, let's make a summary." Horus scratched his head in frustration.
“I guess you don’t want to hear what a great offensive effect we have achieved, or that we have gone one-half of the distance by chasing the red line left by the Second Army. Next, we need to It is this group of war satellites that are to be dismantled in order to regain the main star and regain control of the throat of the space corridor
"We all know that Duncan used the Queen of Glory's collision angle when dealing with the war satellite at Moss. Now, the various signals from the detection instruments and auspicious devices tell us that the number we have to face is It’s three.”
The commander of the war glanced at several screens. His brothers were listening to him. Every time he encountered this scene, he could feel his energy becoming more concentrated. A passion is sparked from the inside out.
“My current idea is to start with the outer one together to crack the overall defense circle, and then deal with the corresponding small clusters in sequence. If possible, we can also dismantle the two war satellites, Clear a cutoff line in the enemy's territory, then return to the attack direction and encircle the satellites and main star inside.
"What do you think? "
Leon put down the hand that was supporting his cheek, and the lifted cloak drooped. "After the first war satellite is destroyed, the remaining ones of the same kind will be more vigilant and enter a state of alert. And we have four Astartes legions, and five Titan legions ready to go. ”
He pulled the holographic image at hand, drew a horizontal line on the map, arranged all the logos of the four legions on the horizontal line, and marked a thick arrow pointing toward the inside.
"You should attack together," said Leon, "on all war satellites."
"What about you, Leon?" Lorgar asked.
"The Dark Angels will lead the attack on the main star. My legion's offensive cannot be dispersed to avoid possible losses caused by the weakening of the attack."
"Your view is reasonable. Brother," the Truth Speaker said quietly, his violet eyes carrying humble respect, "but if you follow your arrangement, attacking the main star will require a large number of flexible ground assault units, as well as close contact and close contact with other legions at all times. Cooperate. I think the one who should really take this position is Horus’s Luna Wolf.”
The lion's tone darkened. "If you think the Dark Angels are not powerful enough to shoulder this responsibility, you can say so directly, Aurelion." The man with the truth-speaker shook his head slightly: "All things serve Him. Everyone has their place."
< br>
"In Caliban, we don't believe in this," the Lion King was unmoved, "You need to come up with practical arguments."
"Listen to me idea, brothers," Perturabo said, and he immediately attracted the attention of several others.
"Please." Horus stretched out his hand in the direction of Perturabo's screen, "Speak freely, Lord of Iron, as long as you don't speak too freely like Rogal Dorn."
Horus' words caused Perturabo to chuckle, and the atmosphere became lively in an instant.
“I think I can speak better than the golden skull of Dorne, let alone him himself.” Perturabo said, “The plans proposed by Horus and the Leon included the war satellite. The surrounding main star is regarded as the focus of the attack, but we must first know that the structure of this group of battle fortresses has been isolated by us as we gradually penetrated Randan's sideline.
"It is one of them. So it can still exist because it is a self-sufficient system, which also means that its internal military strength is actually limited.
“If all three of its war satellites are under attack, or even one satellite is attacked, the forces within this isolated block may gather towards the war satellites. Under this premise , its main star should be in a weak defensive state, and should be especially suitable for the team's infiltration operations."
Logar smiled and said almost immediately: "I agree with you, Perturabo."< br>
Perturabo nodded slightly in response.
He has discovered that Aurelion always seems to be standing with him intentionally or unintentionally. When they explored the hospital wing together before, Lorgar accompanied him; during the military operations in the past few months, , Luojia is always willing to cooperate with him.
He doesn't understand the secret of this. If there is a chance later, he would like to ask the reason.
Leon was silent and lost in thought. "That's right," he said, his tone harsh, but it did show the Lion's approval. "The interior of an isolated fortress system may fall into emptiness."
"A commando team responsible for infiltration?" Horus confirmed Perturabo's meaning, "Exactly, will it be used in the attack on the war satellite? Join the infiltrator team. So, you mean to send an infiltration team to invade the main star while attacking the satellite... Who will form this team?"
Without the need for an iron hand, his camera automatically displayed the fluorescent blue grid of the star map under the control of neural connections. A war satellite is marked red, linking the fronts of four expeditionary forces.
He spoke: "To put it more completely, I think we can jointly take down one satellite first and send smaller forces to the remaining satellites, implying that we will compete for occupation rights. At the same time..."
A second dotted line extends from the four Astartes legions, jointly pointing to the main star they will attack.
“We can simultaneously mobilize squads from our respective legions to form a flexible infiltration force.
“On the one hand, this will break Ran Dan’s inference about our existing tactical style-if They maintain smooth internal communication. On the other hand, for future considerations, we should also let the armies understand each other. If it is difficult for us generals to reach sufficient consensus, then let our soldiers do it. ”
Horus was thoughtful and touched his head again. He hadn't been in the mood for a haircut lately, and a layer of extremely short, downy hair had popped up again.
He sometimes teases each other with his soldiers. If everyone doesn't cut their hair, after the whole battle, will they become a group of short-haired boys, or will they have long hair hanging over their shoulders and must be tied up? The harness can be fixed in the helmet.
"Your assumption is based on the premise that the internal forces of this isolated system are indeed limited." Horus pointed out a blind spot, "But if their power is sufficient to fill the satellites and main stars, we The combined team sent into the main star fell into the abyss."
Perturabo erased the star map on the screen, "I have my own way to determine the density of the enemy, Horus."
Horus sighed: "Another secret of yours, okay. But let me guess, is it related to the Emperor's old friend? I thought he returned to Terra."
"He is indeed in Terra now." Perturabo replied, "Therefore, my method is actually to aggregate war data and build an estimation model. Okay, my brothers, do you have any other ideas? ? Our meeting has been going on for ten minutes, which is enough for my fleet to launch another round of torpedoes."
"No more," Luojia said with a smile, "I think we can hand over the matter of forming the team. To our commanders. They understand the hearts of the Space Marines better than we do, due to our innate division of responsibilities."
"I must say, Perturabo, your presence improves. It has affected the efficiency of all of us." Horus pretended to complain, "It's only been ten minutes!"
"I have no objection," Leon said, raising a hand. Grab the main star in the star chart in front of him. The holographic image shattered in his palm, as if it was being grasped and torn apart.
"Okay, adjourn." Horus clapped his hands and announced simply, "I really look forward to discovering something new on this main star. We have dug deep enough. Also, Lorgar, I have an unfinished question. If I don’t get an answer, I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep well for the next week.”
"Please tell me."
"What gift have you prepared for father, Lorgar?" Horus leaned forward curiously. Leon, who was about to leave the screen, also stopped and looked over with dark green eyes.
Luojia pursed his lips and smiled happily and restrainedly, the look on his face lit up by the gift he had in mind.
"The bones of the pagans," he said, "mainly skulls, but also some decorative humerus and phalanges, etc. I want to use them to make a holy throne to dissolve the existing stigma of their existence. Blasphemy, and damage to His radiance. I am taking stock of the available materials..."
"Okay, thank you..." Horus reluctantly squeezed out his stiff face. A little smile, "Father would be amazed by this, Lorgar."
"Thank you, Horus." The Truespeaker nodded to him sincerely.
Leon frowned, showing a trace of confusion. "Does Father like this, Horus? Do we need to do this?"
Perturabo reached out and covered the lower half of his face.
"No, I will explain to you later. Lorgar, you can continue counting. Goodbye..." Horus hung up the call with Lorgar eagerly and turned to Leon: "This It's Lorgar's personal hobby. He never harms people within the Human Empire, and the expedition has always been very efficient, so his father allows him to do it."
"Then the Emperor doesn't like it." Said, "Why did you deceive Lorgar?"
"I didn't, Leon, the Emperor is above..."
Leon was about to ask again, and Perturabo interjected: "As you said, I will not be like Roger Doro En asked freely, "Goodbye, Horus, we look forward to our cooperation."
After saying that, the Iron Lord blinked and took the initiative to cut off the communication.
Leon frowned even more tightly, apparently making some secret logical deductions. Finally, he said: "I understand, I will not learn from Rogal Dorn. Goodbye, Horus."
Then, he also took the initiative to end the conversation.
Horus breathed a long sigh of relief and suddenly realized that Leon had not actually met Rogal Dorn in person, and the image of the Terran Guards might have become unusual in Leon's eyes.
Sorry, Dorne. Horus thought. He didn't do it on purpose.
(End of this chapter)