"Speech--"
"Huhaha, I'm alive..."
Zhu Yangai slumped in his chair in a terrible posture, with bottles of various drinks scattered all over the floor. Several servo skulls were helping the hammer man clean up the mess. Just now, when Zhu Yangai, as a wolf pawn, drank the wolf wine that was actually produced based on the memory of the Queen of Glory, the horrible feeling that could not be described in normal words directly stopped Zhu Yangai's descent, and he "rolled and crawled" back to the Queen of Glory, and then pointed and ordered a lot of drinks, and finally succeeded in suppressing the strange taste in his mouth.
"...You insisted on being curious about the taste of the wolf wine, even though everyone else had warned you."
Seeing Zhu Yangai, who had a feeling of "decline", Redler could not help but cover his forehead with his hand. After joining the "Cursed High Lord Organization", Redler, as a newcomer, naturally learned from Liang Feifan and his friends. Since they were actually colleagues and comrades-in-arms, Liang Feifan and his friends did not hide some of the more subtle things from the newcomers, but Zhu Yangai knew there was a tiger in the mountain!
"As a Space Wolves player, why don't you try drinking wolf wine when you have the chance - er... why do I feel the taste coming back?"
The next moment after he said the word "wolf wine", the bad memories just now flooded into his mind again, making Zhu Yangai almost vomit again - fortunately, Zhu Yangai still had some normal food that he had not finished eating, which helped this curious hammer guy to successfully suppress that feeling again.
"Is Wolf Wine really that powerful? I wonder if the intelligence they collected about Wolf Wine at the time was...Okay, let's not mention this word for now. Let's study how to fight this wave."
Since Zhu Yankai's previous series of performances were indeed too exaggerated, the Technical Sergeant couldn't help but be curious about the taste of this famous Warhammer 40K liquor that could cross dimensions and defeat Hammer Boss. However, after realizing that saying the word "Wolf Wine" would tear a crack in Zhu Yankai's hard-healed psychological trauma, the Technical Sergeant immediately changed the subject.
"Considering the size of the opposing fleet and the number of Tau Empire pawns we have, in order to ensure the highest success rate of this operation, the use of Tau pawns for infiltration and decapitation operations can only be used in the final stage after the position of the opposing commander is fully confirmed. In the early stage, it is best for us to use some Astartes pawns to perform a standard boarding to seize some Tau warships or reduce their mobility to zero - this can also cover our behavior of sneaking Tau Empire pawns onto their ships without anyone noticing."
After thinking for a while, Redler gave his own opinion, and this idea made Zhu Yangai frown.
"I've already told the Weepers to wait and not move. If we start the game with a standard boarding without them, wouldn't that be Astartes bullying?"
"It's not a big problem. They can follow the subsequent Manta pieces to board the enemy flagship. This is much more glorious than the boarding trips our pieces have to make. Besides, the Weepers may not know that we boarded the enemy flagship before they did."
Redler's tone was confident, a question mark appeared over Zhu Yankai's head, and the technical sergeant suddenly realized.
"You mean the boarding plan is to send a drone in and then directly launch the chess piece? I thought you said the standard boarding was to find a way to use some vehicle to crash into the Tau Empire's warship!"
"We can't take out the boarding torpedoes now, so of course we have to board like this - the Tau won't care about this detail anyway - they just need to know that the human Astartes are attacking them."
"Will this arouse suspicion on the Titanium side? The message we arranged for the Titanium chess piece to send to the Titanium side is of great benefit!"
Although Redler's words made sense, Zhu Yangai couldn't help but worry about the possibility of being exposed when he thought about the message that the Hammers had arranged for the Tau Empire's pawns to send to the Tau expeditionary fleet. After all, in the message, the Hammers didn't mention that there were any Astartes from the Empire in this world...
"The premise for the matter to be exposed is that the Titanium knows that there is a being that can impersonate the Titanium race almost perfectly. Now the Titanium has no such intelligence source at all - well, it can't be said that it doesn't have it, but with the Titanium's adaptability to the warp, unless Tzeentch finds a way to talk to them in person, even if Carlos tells them nine truths in a row, I'm afraid the Titanium will only hear some noise."
First I decided, then I thought of a blue soft creature that seemed to have
Starting to spy on this battle, Redler immediately changed his tone of certainty to possibility - after all, it's not surprising for a Chaos God like Tzeentch to do anything...
"It is possible that Tzeentch will enter the battlefield at a loss just for fun, so we must be prepared to launch a strong attack at any time. However, with the limited troops we have, if we really launch a strong attack, the pressure of completely destroying the front line of the Tau expansion fleet is a bit too much..."
Zhu Yangai frowned and the technical sergeant shrugged.
"Actually, this problem is easy to solve. If things really show signs of being beyond our control, we can just ask other people if they are free to help us out. If that doesn't work, we can just borrow some pawns."
"Indeed. Then, shall we start arranging the script?"
"Write! This time we're going to make the script even more 'miserable'!"
20. The Weeper - The Final Battle is About to Begin
What did you just see in your dream?
Shiva, who came back to reality from sleep, propped himself up from his desk with his hands, a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.
In order to write a perfect speech report that would reassure those humans who chose to follow the Greater Good and become a subordinate race of the Tau Empire, Shiva had spent almost all of his time, except for eating and necessary sleep, on compiling this speech. This also caused the Water elder to enter a trance due to excessive energy consumption, and he had to use some extra potions from time to time to help himself stay clear-headed - and Shiva maintained this behavior until the body index sounded the alarm.
Then he had a very strange dream, a dream full of things he didn't know. In the dream, he saw a soft blue thing jumping up and down, mumbling incoherently about things he couldn't understand at all. Before he could get closer to listen carefully to what this abnormal thing was saying, a ball of purple-red mist rolled into his dream and started to "gesticulate" - well, now Shiva was also very confused as to why he felt that a ball of mist would gesture.
Then, the blue soft thing started fighting with the purple-red mist - well, although it is indeed strange to say this, Shiva's intuition told him that these two things were fighting, and the methods they used were also directly and completely incomprehensible - when the red light suddenly shone down in the sky of his dream, Shiva found that his consciousness returned to reality.
"Elder Shiva, we have successfully reunited, and your landing ship and honor guard are ready."
Just when Shiva wanted to dig into his memory and discover the messy things he had just dreamed about to see if they were the inspiration he got from thinking too much about the Greater Good, one of his personal guards knocked on his door and respectfully reported to the elder of the Water Clan something that surprised Shiva.
"Arrived already?"
Shiva spoke majestically, and at the same time, he glanced at the timer on his desk from the corner of his eye. He was surprised to find that he had overslept. But how could this be possible? Didn't he set a rest time?
"Yes, elder."
"Have everyone do a final check, especially the ceremonial items. For the sake of the Greater Good, we must ensure that there are no mistakes in our diplomacy this time."
"Understood, elder."
After pondering for a while, he felt that it was a waste of time to study why he overslept. Besides, Shiva was not a Titan who was not good at accepting unexpected things. So, Shiva asked his drone to organize his recent manuscripts, and asked the drone to bring his most solemn ceremonial clothes. He stood up, pulled himself together, and walked towards the door.
He stepped towards the most bizarre and also the last diplomatic action in his life.
———————————The dividing line on the surface of Gibursa II——————————————————
In full swing.
beaming.
At the coordinate point on Line 2 of Gibursa received by the Four Clans Council of Yu Tau, a village has been built. Although it is generally in human style, the architectural style of some major areas has been changed to that of Tau. The flags fluttering in the wind are inscribed with phrases from the Greater Good in the rough Tau language. A statue of a Tau fire warrior, which is a bit crooked but can be barely recognized by those who know the situation, is placed in the center of the village. Various welcome words are inscribed in the Tau language on the metal seal hanging on the wall. Fully armed fire warriors are patrolling the village under the leadership of the champion of the Tau clan.
And humans are defenseless.
“This is the Greater Good.”
When Shiva was slowly descending towards the village in his spaceship, everything presented on his screen made the Water Clan elder narrow his eyes in pleasure. As a diplomat who often used his eloquent tongue to convey the message of the Greater Good to various dangerous alien races, Shiva was accustomed to the actions of those guys who 'believe in the Greater Good first and repent later', and was mentally prepared to face some unfavorable things. However, looking at the appearance of this village?
Some human settlements that have believed in the Greater Good for a long time are not so Greater Good! No! Even some areas that are similar to Titanium
No race that has lived for a long time has been so kind!
And when Shiva stepped off the spaceship and looked at several humans wearing Tau costumes, led by fire warriors and holding gift boxes, walking towards him in an orderly manner, the elder of the Water Clan felt even more ecstatic, so much so that he could not help but want to walk up to the human holding the gift first - until the box was opened and the fact that there was nothing inside was revealed to the elder of the Water Clan.
"This box?"
Looking at the empty box in front of him, Shiva felt a sense of crisis. However, after confirming that these humans were closely guarded by the fire warriors, he felt relieved. So what? These humans would not threaten his life. At most, Arden would deal with the rest!
"Human, this is not the etiquette of the Greater Good - I believe that your etiquette does not include the custom of sending empty boxes to distinguished guests from afar - so, can you please give me a reasonable explanation."
However, out of caution, Shiva secretly ordered his guards to aim at these somewhat strange humans. At the same time, he took a small step back to make the relative distance between himself and the humans who gave gifts safer, and then he asked in his most standard diplomatic tone - at the same time, his hand was on the emergency button, ready to send out a distress signal at any time.
"This is certainly not the etiquette for welcoming distinguished guests. However, this is a ceremony to 'welcome' the ignorant aliens."
Before Shiva, who had already prepared for the possibility that things might go wrong, could press the well-camouflaged emergency button, several pulse beams bombarded the guards he brought with him. In the blink of an eye, these Titanium Empire warriors, who had never expected to be attacked by their own compatriots, fell to the ground powerlessly with sparks flying all over their bodies. After twitching a few times, they stopped moving. One of the Titanium Clan's fire warriors even threw off his helmet, revealing his face with his eyes open in death.
“Ah…..Ah???”
Something completely unexpected happened before his eyes. Shiva, who had always followed the teachings of the Greater Good, was completely stunned. He wanted to scream, but it was as if a large bottle of glue was stuffed into his throat and no sound came out. He wanted to run, but his feet seemed to have taken root and he couldn't move. When the elder of the Water Clan finally got his body back under the control of his brain, he found that he had been completely surrounded.
"Traitor, you have betrayed the Greater Good - my actions have been transmitted to the flagship in real time. If you surrender now, there is still a way to survive."
Looking around at the Titanium Clan warriors surrounding him, Shiva spoke in a sad and angry tone.
"Don't waste your energy, alien. We already know everything about you. What you see on your ship now is a beautiful scene of us gathering together to discuss the Greater Good. Although this video is not very long, it is enough for us to do something, something that will allow us to better eliminate you."
A strange light flashed, and the human standing opposite Shiva put on a set of Kadia Castle Lord's battle robes at an incredible speed. At the same time, the sound of some kind of weapon starting to work was also heard by Shiva. Shiva, realizing what he was about to encounter, hurriedly tried to move his legs that had regained consciousness, but the next second, he was kicked to the ground.
"Want to make a deal? Can you lend me your head?"
—————————————————The dividing line of the Titanium Fleet——————————————————————
Something is definitely not right.
If before, Arden simply felt that "relying on the Greater Good to take over a planet with humans who chose to resist the Tau Empire" was somewhat inconsistent with the history of pioneering operations he knew, then after watching in real time Shiva and those humans who had surrendered to the Greater Good happily discussing the beautiful scenes of the Greater Good together, Arden concluded one thing.
How could the concept of the Greater Good attract humans to such an extent? Something happened to Shiva!
However, the other two elders who were on the same council as him obviously did not think so.
"Arden, we all know that you have some other understandings of the Greater Good. We are not surprised by this, because part of your Fire Clan's duties conflict with the Greater Good. However, this is not a reason for you to deny that the Greater Good can sometimes achieve success that guns and cannons cannot."
The Air Clan elder shook his head slightly, looking as if he disagreed with Arden.
"We have been closely monitoring Shiva, his warriors, and his ship. So far, we have not found anything unusual."
This is what the elder of the Tu clan told Arden after he pointed out the projection.
"......"
Ardern did not answer, but repeatedly recalled in his mind everything that had happened since he learned that this galaxy had been taken over by the Tau Empire. Some sense of disharmony in the details was beating in Ardern's mind. These things that seemed to be fine at first glance combined into a twisted and deadly possibility - a possibility that made him shudder and violated common sense - if this possibility existed, then all the disharmony would be explained. However, is this possibility really possible? If it is true
, doesn't that mean ether...?
"Shiva is back, let's go greet him."
Just as Arden was trembling because of a certain guess that popped up in his mind, the projection screen in front of them showed the scene of Shiva's spaceship returning to the mothership. Seeing this, the other two elders immediately stood up and prepared to greet it according to the rules...
"Arden, what's wrong with you?"
Looking at Arden who was sitting motionless in the chair, the elder of the Tu clan sounded puzzled - he knew very well that although Arden often behaved very eccentrically, in terms of etiquette, he still followed the teachings of the Higher Good. Why did he even ignore etiquette this time?
"I have something to do and I have to leave right away. Please tell Shiva that I'm sorry."
Talking incoherent and incomprehensible words, Arden rushed out of the meeting room of the Four-Man Council like a frightened animal, quickly entered the combat command room, and in the puzzled eyes of other Fire warriors, he issued a series of martial law orders that would put the entire fleet on notice at lightning speed. Only when he was sure that the last order was successfully received did Arden breathe a sigh of relief.
"So, I guess it's all right?"
————————————————The dividing line of the weeper——————————————————————
do not think too much.
Do not ask.
Don't even wonder.
We are the Emperor's Angels of Death. It is our duty to fight in the Emperor's name and to protect all living things in the Imperium. Everything else is false.
However......
In Manta's hangar, Chapter Master Malakin, who was waiting to use this unique boarding plan again to deal a fatal blow to the main force of the alien fleet, couldn't help but cast his gaze towards the Astra Militarum array not far away - the Chapter Master of the Lamenters could easily judge that this Astra Militarum that obviously originated from Cadia was a truly powerful army, and its elite level could be said to be the best Astra Militarum he had ever seen - but where did such a large Astra Militarum come from?
Just when Malakin was giving himself another warning, telling himself not to think too much and not to delve into the secrets of the First Legion, Redler came to Captain Malakin with the avatar of the Political Commissar Sister - a model of the Lord of Cadia that the Political Commissar Sister had slightly modified herself.
"Brother Malakin, this is the Lord of Kurta. When the boarding operation begins, his people will cooperate with you in the battle. And those Tau people who have chosen the right path of the Emperor will pave the way for you. In addition, we will assist the Lamenters in accessing the combat command channel of the Tau aliens to obtain first-hand intelligence of the Tau aliens in real time. I believe you can make good use of it."
"clear."
Malakin said this after once again giving up on thinking about how many weird tricks the First Legion had.
21. The Weepers: The End of the Tau Fleet
To the Tau fleet, the origins of this catastrophe were horrific and incomprehensible.
As they got off the spaceship, Shiva, the Water caste elder who had the deepest understanding of the Greater Good in the fleet and was always amiable to all intelligent beings willing to follow the Greater Good - whether they were Tau or not - suddenly pulled out a Pulse Rifle from behind him and shot the head of the Air caste elder who was unprepared to greet him. He then roared loudly for the Emperor and ordered the Fire caste warriors behind him to shoot to death the other living Tau in the hangar - including the Earth caste elder who was standing there in a daze because of this drastic change. The entire fleet was in chaos in an instant, with all kinds of contradictory information spreading frantically in the communication channels. Some Tau claimed that they were being hunted by their own people, while other Tau claimed that the Empire's warriors called Astartes had infiltrated the fleet and were madly slaughtering all the Tau they could meet. At the same time, some Tau stated that in fact Elder Shiva had died a long time ago, and the despicable Fire Clan elder had found his confidant to disguise himself as the respectable Elder Shiva, with the goal of completely taking control of the command of this vanguard fleet!
"Have the Earth Clan's technicians immediately reset our communication channels and send out all the sounds that are not related to commanding operations. What? You can't do it! If you can't do it, you can at least block some of them, right?"
In the combat command room, the Fire Clan elder Arden, who witnessed Shiva and his men suddenly go crazy after getting off the spaceship, turning the entire hangar into a slaughterhouse, and using a sharper eye than the average Fire Clan to detect that there seemed to be something wrong with the connection between Shiva's head and body, immediately arranged all troops to launch an operation according to the predetermined combat plan the moment he realized that his horrible guess had become a reality. However, the first challenge he encountered was the fleet's command channel, which had become a mess. For the combat method of electronic warfare interference, the Tau Empire had a wealth of response plans, but...
This kind of situation where the entire combat communication network was paralyzed without any warning was the first time even Ardern had seen it!
"Jump the communication channel to backup channel 4 and activate the highest combat protocol at the same time. All teams immediately report your position and enemy to me. The enemy is the Tau people who betrayed the Greater Good. We need to re-establish the enemy identification mechanism." Group 6 94 93 61 35
Just as Ardern was racking his brains to find a way to connect the fleet's chain of command
When the reconstruction was effective, the identification signal of a frigate on the big screen suddenly disappeared in the fleet array—and then the second one.
"Any warning from them?"
Although the projection screen in front of him had not received any calls for help or other alarm-related signals from these ships, Ardern still couldn't help but hold the armrests of his seat tightly - for the first time, the first time he sat in this position, he prayed to the Supreme Good that he had failed in his duty...
"No, elder, everything was fine until their identification signal failed."
It made sense, but the answer that Arden didn't want to hear at all reached his ears, successfully making the nerves of this battle-hardened Fire Clan elder go into 'crazy trembling' mode. After a few seconds of silence, the elder made a decision, a decision that seemed extremely cruel to others.
"Battleship main guns, lock onto the frigates whose identification signals have failed. They may no longer be under our control."
"????Senior citizens?"
Hearing this terrifying order, everyone in the combat command room was stunned.
"I said lock--dammit!!!"
The main guns from the frigates hit the flagship hard. Although it did not break its battleship-level shield, it still gave the flagship, which was already in a mess, a considerable degree of energy supply pressure. When the other Titaniums began to mark the two battleships as enemies and let the main guns start charging, the two frigates had already maxed out their engines and ran away...
"It seems that our enemies have set their sights on our ship—huh?"
The projection screen in front of Ardern suddenly went out, and the sound in the headphones fell silent. In the huge command center, the only sources of light were the flying drones and the glowing equipment worn by Titanium.
"The battleship's engine was not shut down, and the shield is functioning normally. It's just that the energy related to the internal lighting and communications was cut off. Moreover, the backup energy source could not be activated. Earth Clan, are you sure that none of you have betrayed me?"
Such a precise silent attack made Arden, who had already become a frightened bird in some sense, involuntarily cast his eyes towards the Earth Clan working in the combat command center. The meaning implied in his tone made these Earth Clan's Titanium people feel a jolt in their hearts - of course, the good news is that before things develop into a worse situation, the lights of some key equipment have already lit up, and the noisy sounds of the battlefield can be heard again in the headphones.
"I'm sorry, there are too many counterintuitive events in this battle, I have to be on high alert...????"
Seeing the projection screen in front of him light up again, Arden, who felt that he was too nervous just now, breathed a sigh of relief. However, before he could finish his words, the enemy identification signal on the screen that lit up again made him feel like he was falling into an ice cave - what happened? Why was his place marked as "enemy"? No? It's not just his place, the identification mechanism of all teams has been messed up!
"Hurry up and change the IFF system - can't it be changed?"
"Elder Arden, it's completely locked down. IFF, unlock it. It will take us at least half a day to complete it."
