Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 164

Hades was surprised by Mortarion's reflections on the pale purple sun, as he hadn't expected the sky over Barbarus to be like this.

There are always things we can't imagine.

The matter of Karas has come to a temporary end. Perhaps the Death Guard will encounter a large battlefield one day, and Karas's story will continue. But for now, this "old friend" can only remain asleep for the time being.

Hades blinked and stopped thinking about it.

Thinking about many things is useless and can even lead to being misled, so it's better not to think about them at all.

If you can do it, do it; if you can't, then forget it. There's nothing he can do if he can't do it, so he'll just be sad for a while and then move on.

Time keeps flowing, and a lot of things are still waiting; there's not much time for lamenting.

Hades was in a good mood after Barbarus's transformation. He looked at the vast expanse of land before him. If he ignored the red-robed sages being blocked by the Death Guard in the distance, the fertile land lay there, waiting to be built and sown.

Generally speaking, a Legion's homeworld holds an extraordinary political status, and whether or not to value or develop the homeworld depends on the Legion's own plans.

Legions with a strong legion culture and a willingness to build their homeworld, such as the Ultramarines, Robert Guilliman's Mackrag is a beautiful jewel in the Five Hundred Worlds, with its high mountains and azure lakes, towns and towering castles, embodying the brilliant culture of the Ultramarines.

For example, Baal, the Holy Blood Angel, was originally a planet full of radiation, but under the management of Saint Gilles, it was sculpted into a church of beauty and art, with countless exquisite angel statues looking down in the church, a gathering of the Holy Blood Angels faith.

Of course, some legions' homeworlds are just left to their own devices, letting things take their natural course. Barbarus in the original work is one of those types.

Some Legion homeworlds have been deliberately forgotten, or... are not so good.

This indicates that the Legion has encountered some problems in its oversight of the homeworld.

As for the Death Guard's homeworld...

In the planetary construction plan provided by the Faculty of Mechanics, Barbalus's role is actually quite clear: an agricultural planet or a garden planet.

If Barbalus were to become an agricultural planet, its skies would once again be covered in poisonous gas. However, this time the gas would be waste gas from fertilizer factories. Specially modified crops would be planted all over every inch of Barbalus's land, and towering agricultural machines would roar, continuously supplying fast-growing food to other planets.

Hades and Mortarian promptly rejected this option.

If it were to become a garden planet, it would mean transforming Barbarus into a highly habitable planet. The Empire's current garden planet could even be described as paradise.

The greatest significance of Garden Planet lies in its political nature. Important officials of the Empire, as well as politicians from nearby star systems, would come here for vacation, and incidentally conduct some interplanetary cooperation or business activities.

The biggest drawback of becoming a garden planet is that it cannot support too many people. The original planetary inhabitants will be relocated to cities underground to avoid hindering the "scenic value" caused by overpopulation.

However, Barbalus doesn't have this concern. Barbalus's population is so small that even if they were all moved there, the mechanical sages would complain that there are too few maintenance personnel needed.

As a planet, Barbalus's most important aspect is its political and cultural status.

Then let's continue to leverage this strength and avoid our weaknesses.

Hades envisions Barbalus as a garden planet that, relying on the Legion's influence, will use Barbalus as a stage to attract politicians from nearby planets in the Storm Starfield to negotiate cooperation agreements with the Legion and other planets, fostering mutual benefit and assistance.

This is similar to a very loose confederation, with the Death Guard being the largest one, and under the Death Guard's control, the planets engage in loose trade and other such activities.

This doesn't directly benefit the Death Guard, but the increased wealth of the planets near Barbaross does benefit the Death Guard.

My neighbor has food and I have guns. Tonight, cough cough, no, no, it's just that the Death Guard will reasonably take a cut, after all, the Death Guard provides a platform for various political figures to talk together, Barbaros.

The arrival of these dignitaries in Barbalus will indirectly improve the average cultural level of the planet's inhabitants, since Barbalusians would need to learn High Gothic if they wanted to engage in related service industries.

Hades felt utterly hopeless at the thought of teachers who taught "tax evasion" at school, but the good news was that, so far, these teachers' moral education had at least not corrupted the students.

Furthermore, if other planets see how powerful Barbarus and Death Guard are and want to send their children to Death Guard, they can sign a few agreements with Barbarus. If all the recruits pass all the assessments and are of good character, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor skills, it's negotiable.

The 30k Legion has a pretty good reputation. Thanks to the Empire's propaganda, the Space Marines and their Primarchs have been portrayed as glorious and valiant, fighting to reclaim lost territory.

Therefore, many people want to join the Legion. On the one hand, it is a personal choice, and on the other hand, for families that control an entire planet, befriending one of the Empire's armed forces is certainly not a wrong choice.

Since you already have family members working for Deathguard, you'll likely continue to cooperate with Deathguard in other areas as well; it's a natural progression.

Some might say, "Isn't this an empire? Why are they doing these things behind the scenes?" Is it something they're thinking?

That's not right. Look at the Limitless Starfield, the five hundred worlds of Macurag, did the Empire say anything?

Although Robert Guilliman was often suspected by other Primarchs because of this, after all, the Macragge 500 Worlds did indeed seem quite ambitious.

The Death Guard won't follow Macragge's example. After all, Guilliman's subspace projection might really be a quantum computer, but Mortalian's definitely isn't.

If the Death Guard truly had direct control over so many planets, even if all of them were trained into politicians, it still wouldn't be enough.

Therefore, the Death Guard won't do that. They only need to focus on the construction of the most important planets. The rest is up to those who are willing to take the bait; it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The Great Crusade continues, and war is the main theme of the Legion. Therefore, the Death Guard cannot continue to devote themselves to the minutiae of politics. However, using the Death Guard's homeworld, Barbarossa, to indirectly develop logistics is also a good option.

The Death Guard hasn't received many war orders recently because of the Galaspa campaign. The Death Guard swiftly devoured an entire supergalaxy, and Mortarion's brutal war style led to the surrender of high-ranking officials in nearby star systems. After all, the Death Guard hanged all of Galaspa's management and also destroyed Galaspa's main hive.

However, as long as they surrendered to the empire before the war began, these high-ranking officials could still enjoy their later years in peace.

It must be said that the Emperor, by sending the Death Guard to the vicinity of the Galapa star system, truly understood in some respects which legions were suitable for which situations, and how to acquire as many resources as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Although the Death Guard suffered heavy losses

So far, the Death Guard's progress in the Empire's war missions is still acceptable, not to the point of being warned by the Emperor.

Hades calculated the time; he figured that once the Death Guard finished building its supply lines, the Empire's new war decree would be issued again.

He looked up at the dreamlike sky of Barbarossa, pondering his next steps.

Beside Hades, Mortarian stared into the distance and sighed.

The noisy Greiel oilers caught Mortalian's attention. While Mortalian was somewhat grateful for the sages' dedication to modifying Barbarus, they were, in a sense, a bit too noisy.

They chanted the binary prayer of Mechanism and sang praises to the miracles of the god of machines.

"Those mechanical sages have been moving this way."

Mortarian said this with certainty, and then Hades beside him began coughing violently, as if he had choked.

"The Space Marines' physical structure prevents them from choking."

Motarian reiterated his statement with certainty.

Hades remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking.

"I accidentally let them know about my Mechanic skills earlier, and they seemed shocked by it, and..."

Hades paused for a moment.

"Maybe I learned some good things on Mars before, and they are envious of that."

Mortarian silently gazed at the red-robed sages, remembering Karas, whom he had neglected back then.

"If this bothers you, remember to say so."

"The Death Guard is not threatened by a Forged World."

Hades breathed a sigh of relief; at least he'd gotten away with it.

In a sense, he was telling the truth.

"No, no, no, it won't affect anything."

"In fact, this might be a good thing."

Since the Deathguards have always been positioned as heavy infantry combatants, it's quite reasonable for them to ask Greedo for some tanks or something.

Death Guard cannot win simply by crushing infantry on the battlefield.

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Chapter 187 Damn it, stop praying to me!

Hades announced that he ranked the current situation as one of the top three situations in which he most wanted to die.

Even though Hades once calmly ganged up on a group of tech-savvy soldiers on Mars who envied him, and even though he was once surrounded and had his daily food allowance consumed by others, Hades has never wanted to die as much as he does now.

Hades is currently on the casting satellite orbiting Barbarus, where the Grei'ai sages invited him to come and see the equipment to be produced in the future, and also told him that there happens to be a "small" completion ceremony there that they hope he will attend.

The thought of discussing future equipment led Hades to arrive without any suspicion.

Looking back now, Hades wants to strangle his overly naive self from back then.

The towering church roof depicts mythology, where the history passed down to this day branches out anew. Servant skeletons swirl and dance to hymns, while deep within the church, the figures of Titans appear and disappear.

The binary hymn revolved around Hades, and a sage in a red robe slowly stepped out. The sacred scent of engine oil permeated every gear, revealing luxury in every detail.

The sages happily invited Hades to take a seat in the "VIP" section. But whose VIP section is right in the very center of the TMD arena?!

Not only that, behind Hades’ seat is a huge statue. Unlike the traditional image of the god of all machines, this statue is sculpted to look like it is covered with a black cloth. The faint edges of the stone give off a sense of oppression and gloom.

Hades' lips twitched. He retracted his earlier promise to Mortalian. Run! Run! Help!

But that's not all.

Before Hades fully handed over Blackrock Technology to Sister Silent, Charon and Blackfa assured him that they would watch over his safety at all times to ensure the completion of their mission.

That is

Hades is now accompanied by a member of the Imperial Guard and the Silent Sisters. Ughhhhhh!

No, these sages, can't you see the huge, golden-clad imperial guard surrounding him?! Or is it genuinely that big?

Do you really think they're just ordinary security personnel?

Wait a minute, there seems to be room for two people to stand on either side of that VIP section. Could it be what he's thinking?!

Hades sensed that Sister Silent Black was about to execute him on the spot. Black's hand moved to the gun handle and slowly gripped the pistol.

As for Charon, the member of the Royal Guard, wearing a helmet, Hades couldn't discern Charon's attitude at all, but Charon seemed to have stopped Sister Blackfa's actions.

In a daze, Hades seemed to see heaven beckoning to him.

No, I have to run!

Hades slammed on the brakes, and the sages behind him stopped, bewildered. The sage in front of him, who was pulling Hades toward his seat, nearly stumbled.

Although the sage was quite strong, Hades was still quite large, so he managed to prevent the sage from dragging him along.

"."

"What are you doing?"

A deep, hoarse voice rang out, clashing with the loud, clear hymns playing in the church.

"A ceremony, my lord, to consecrate this newly constructed casting satellite."

"I suddenly remembered that I have something to attend to. The commander of the Death Guard has summoned me back. I'm afraid I may have to miss this ceremony."

This is a lie.

Barbarus, now in its reconstruction phase, is in dire need of extensive vegetation restoration, and the Death Guard also requires a lot of biochemical weapons. So, Mortarion, who is skilled in biochemical research, has been happily playing with the bio-sage druid in charge of Barbarus and has been ignoring everyone lately.

Unlike other Primarchs, Mortarion has gone far in biochemical research, specifically in the formulation of different types of poisons, drugs, and explosives.

So Mortalian didn't even look for Hades, but Hades now needed an excuse that wasn't something he could decide to make a move.

Moreover, in the eyes of these Grei'e sages, although Hades was an agent, he was still working within the Death Guard system. If Hades was punished by the Legion because they violated the Legion Commander's orders, it would be a sin for the sages to bring misfortune upon the agent of God.

Hades thought weakly, "If I were really forced to sit in that seat, I'd probably be close to death."

Sure enough, upon hearing Hades's words, the mechanical sage cautiously turned his head, and Hades simultaneously sensed that the radio wave zone in this space instantly became lively—the sages had begun to discuss.

The language of binary code and radio waves is far more efficient than the outdated vocal cords. After patiently waiting for 3.6 milliseconds, the guiding sage spoke.

"Are you really leaving, sir?"

Hades smiled and said, "Look at Charon, the Imperial Guard, and Sister Blackfa beside him now. Do you believe that if he hadn't left, he would most likely have died here?"

Even if he gets out of here, there's a high probability someone will die.

Hades looked up at the towering church dome, where tiny, fragmented skeletal angels gazed at him from the ceiling. Hades accepted with a sense of peace the fact that he might die today.

But Hades' survival instinct compelled him to utter the next sentence.

"I'm leaving."

"My lord, for a satellite being cast, the completion ceremony is of great significance. It is a ceremony to pray for the wisdom of the god of all machines to bless this place."

Such ceremonies would invite as many sages as possible from the world of forging to participate, because the wiser the sage, the more outstanding their scientific achievements, the more likely they are to be considered as having received the wisdom of the god of all machines.

In reality, the more outstanding a sage's scientific achievements, the less they believe in the doctrines of the Mechanicus. However, they will gladly attend such ceremonies, as it is a good opportunity to gain reputation and prestige in front of those lower-ranking sages.

Most lower-ranking sages are deeply believers in the Cult of the Machine God. It is unclear whether they are lower-ranking sages because they believe in the cult, or whether they believe in the cult because they are lower-ranking sages.

After all, the doctrines of the Mechanicus are not innovative, but rather quite rigid dogma. If one were to completely adhere to the doctrines and rules of the Mechanicus, those scientific research results that require a little "innovation" would probably never be developed.

Therefore, wise and sages generally never claim to have "invented" anything. Instead, they say that they were blessed by the god of all things and restored them according to their original structure.