Chapter 724: The Army of Plague
Standard Terra Calendar, 943.M41, Ultimate Star Territory
This world is called Mistry, located on the northwest edge of the Ultimate Star Territory, in Silence Among the stars, it does not have many distinctive features, it is just an ordinary agricultural world.
But today its peace has been ruthlessly torn apart. Many things have arrived from the subspace transition point outside the galaxy. They are not beautifully and magnificently decorated with the eagle emblem and church. Galaxy Runner is a corpse-grey behemoth with a huge shell.
They were once the Death Scythes of the Emperor, but now serve only the God of Corruption.
Even the most gullible of planetary overseers felt antsy as the battleships took up positions above Mistry's ridiculously meager orbital defences.
They sent messages to the leading battleship, a huge monster, but they all fell into the sea with no response.
Then various instructions were sent frantically to the defensive grid to order them to retreat, but by then even this gesture was too late.
The gentle local residents had never seen a fleet with full firepower, so they should not be blamed for being ignorant of what was about to happen - they still looked up to the sky when the bombing came.
Subsequently, the sky was shrouded in white light, and the clouds were burned away. Before the precise strike of the light spear destroyed every command and control node across the northern hemisphere, the huge ship annihilated the orbital station, and the burning objects fell like rain. Various urban areas were violently bombarded, and after hours of continuous artillery fire, only bricks and rubble were left in place.
Burning flakes of promethium swept through what remained, searing them until they were black.
The huge granary became a cave with white steam, and the precious grain turned into burning dust.
When the bombing finally stopped, bombs carrying deadly viruses were dropped on the ground one after another, continuing the unfinished massacre.
A week later, when the few survivors who had survived the bombing and virus torture slowly crawled out of the shelter they found on the spot, with tinnitus and tearful eyes, they once felt that this was a need. The worst of the horrific wrongs to be rectified is over, and attackers who are content with the apocalyptic destruction they have brought about for reasons that remain a mystery may now move on to their next target.
But after that, the drop pod trailing a dirty trail tore through the smoky sky, and several clusters of teardrop-shaped fine gold objects smashed to the ground, forming a group of ceramite steel and corrupted flesh. A huge monster emerges from the rubble pit at the impact point.
Subsequently, more and more airborne pods landed, and even warriors in rotting armor rushed out of the poisonous air mass. Their faces were hidden in helmets equipped with sloping grilles. Most of the helmets had horns or tumors, which were exposed through the adhesive. There were cracks all over the slimy armor, and even the wriggling internal organs could be seen.
If you only look at their appearance, no one can imagine that they were once a group of stoic and tenacious warriors a long time ago.
The Fourteenth Legion of the Great Crusade, once known as the Twilight Raiders, was renamed the Death Guard after the Primarch was recovered. It was also one of the traitorous legions during the Horus Heresy.
But what is worth pondering is that Nathaniel Gallo, the captain of the Death Guard, was also the first person to bring news of the great rebellion back to Terra.
Although the Death Guard participated in the Great Rebellion, they were not what they are now. The Primarch at that time still resisted the Warp, until Typhons, the Primarch's right-hand man, planned a conspiracy.
As the Death Guard fleet advanced towards Terra, Tesphon took action. As First Captain of the Legion, he directed his men to frame and kill the ship's navigator, whom he claimed remained loyal to the Emperor and to his original origins. The body guarantees that he can lead the fleet to Terra without relying on navigators and using his own think tank.
The Primarch trusted him, but unexpectedly he led the entire Legion into a trap - the Death Guard fleet was left helplessly floating in the warp without a navigator, at the mercy of Chaos.
In the boundless drifting, the Destroyer Plague struck, and the Death Guard was knocked down by it, but Tesifon also received his long-awaited reward from the evil god Nurgle. He mastered the power of the plague. Strength, the body became the habitat of Nurgle's flies, and the armor became the nest of the plague.
After his transformation from Captain of the Death Guard to Herald of Nurgle and Lord of the Destroyer Lair, Mortarion himself was forced to succumb to the plague and face Nurgle as well as his sons. The pain caused by the plague. The evil god Nurgle came to the primarch Mortarion. He told Mortarion that if Mortarion was unwilling to swear fealty to the Plague God, they would be tortured forever.
In desperation, Mortarion broke his silence and swore fealty to Nurgle.
Although the suffering caused by the plague was ended, the Death Guard were re-transformed into a decaying army of Plague Marines, bearing no resemblance to their former self before entering the Warp.
After the defeat of Horus, Mortarion led his Death Guard in a war of destruction on more than twenty planets and eventually retreated to the Eye of Terror, where he also obtained Nurgle's ultimate reward is promotion to a full-fledged Daemon Prince, ruling one of Nurgle's greatest plague worlds within the Eye of Terror.
In the long period of time that followed, Mortarion never stepped out of his plague world, but would only send plague fleets to spread plague in the galaxy.
He became increasingly obsessed with the problems of the Warp, and although he returned from time to time to lead his Legion, in his absence the Legion began to fragment into many smaller warbands.
On the other hand, while the Death Guard splintered into factional warbands large and small, they never completely disintegrated as a cohesive force.
These warbands continue to fight with a common single goal, never becoming overly involved in the civil war with other Traitor Legions, and of all the surviving Traitor Legions, the Death Guard remain the most orderly and well-organized It's reasonable, and it's also the most threatening to the empire.
The end of Mistry has come.
With terrifying efficiency, the Death Guard landed in the ruins of sector after sector.
They never asked questions and asked for nothing. As the aftermath of the storm rolled over the ruins of the city, and the fierce acid rain splashed on the still hot metal, the survivors of the overturned city Being hunted like ants.
But their purpose is not just to kill.
The planet's capital was once the most populous city in the world, and received more enthusiastic attention than other regions. However, the former prosperity now only remains a whole strip of smoking ruins. of sunken ditches.
Suddenly, the shimmering air was violently torn apart, and neon arcs overflowed. The swirling sand and dust were stirred up like poisonous snakes, and the remaining bricks and gravel rolled down one after another.
The next moment, the silver sphere flashed into the world, decorated with surging dark energy. A sharp explosion suddenly occurred. The fragile appearance of the sphere was torn apart, and the fragments were scattered among the rubble.
In the center stood eight giant figures. Seven of them strode out, holding their scythes high in their thick gauntlets. Their corrupted armors were covered with scratches and burns, as if they had just left. Escaped from a frantic battle with a tougher opponent.
The eighth man stood tall among these behemoths. His ancient armor was covered with rust and deep sword cuts. The frost brought by the void was steaming outwards. His yellow eyes flickered under the pale cloak like a shroud. Holding a flag with a huge bronze bell.
The Deathstroke Messenger, most people call him this.
At this moment, he was watching the demise of a world indifferently. The foehn wind roared through the disintegrated city scene, and the purgatory fire raging in the chaotic spiral tower filled it with fuel.
(End of this chapter)