Chapter 229: The Rangdan had arrived
"What did I say?"
A voice filled with confusion—and a faint, menacing undertone—cut through the room.
Mortarion turned, fixing his gaze on Hades. The question in his eyes needed no further explanation.
Shit.
Hades nearly choked on his own panic.
No, no, no—this wasn't the time to bluff or bluster!
Hades quickly pivoted:
"Why did you provoke him? The Death Guard might still need to work with the First Legion later!"
At this point in time, Mortarion's "doubting your brother" line sounded, to Hades, like digging his own grave and planting a landmine in it—especially when aimed at the executioner himself, Lion El'Jonson.
He could've picked literally any other Primarch.
The Lord of Death let out a loud, mocking laugh.
"Hah? That was considered provocation? If words like that are 'provocation,' then the Death Guard has already been provoked a thousand times over."
To be fair, he wasn't wrong.
Meetings with Perturabo and Lion El'Jonson had never been pleasant experiences.
Hades faltered for a moment.
"You should've… at least…"
Mortarion quietly watched him fumble.
The Primarch genuinely didn't think what he'd said to Lion was all that harsh—not compared to what Lion El'Jonson had said to him, anyway.
"He may be unreasonable, but since the Death Guard have already started planning ahead, we can't leave anything that can be used against us!"
Critical hit!
Hades landed a direct blow!
It was super effective!
Mortarion was deep in thought!
Seeing Mortarion fall silent, Hades guiltily rubbed his nose.
Ahem.
To be honest, using phrases like "he may be unreasonable, but" always gave him a weird, sour feeling.
It was also kind of like indirectly calling Lion El'Jonson out—but honestly, given the Lion's prior attitude, it wasn't entirely unjustified.
Finally, Mortarion nodded slowly.
"I don't like it… but yes, it's true."
To his credit, Mortarion had an extremely high tolerance for facing unpleasant truths—after all, this poor Primarch had rarely experienced anything that actually went his way.
Still, he wasn't happy. Not at all.
The very thought of those grotesque "brothers," strutting around with their self-righteous arrogance, made Mortarion want to shoot someone on sight.
But reality remained.
There would be more interactions with them in the future.
There might even be open conflict again.
So maybe it was a good idea to keep the Death Guard a little less conspicuous—to avoid drawing suspicion from the other Primarchs…
Still… Mortarion really did want to throw down with Perturabo. Or Lion El'Jonson.
He despised those who were self-important and held themselves above others.
"So… maybe avoid saying things that could raise suspicions?"
Seeing that Mortarion was still thinking, Hades carefully ventured the suggestion.
The aura of "pissed off" and "itching for a fight" was practically leaking off of him.
Mortarion let out a long sigh.
"Then you shouldn't have stopped me, Hades. I was about to point out Lion's command mistakes. That would've shifted the topic away from meaningless and dangerous provocations."
Hades twitched.
Don't stop you?
And let it turn into you and Lion El'Jonson having a 1v1 deathmatch in real life?
Primarchs, man.
Unless they had stellar upbringing or were ridiculously talented, most of them were just angry bros who thought none of the others were worth a damn.
Trash talk was their default communication style.
There's even a running joke about how every Primarch believes he can beat up 80% of his brothers.
Ahem, no—wait, we've gotten off track here.
Though, from the perspective of someone who enjoys chaos for the sake of entertainment, Hades was kind of looking forward to seeing a Primarch 1v1 brawl.
"Mortarion, my personal recommendation is this: when dealing with other Legions, caution is key."
Mortarion waved a hand dismissively.
"Understood."
. . . . . . . .
Rust was in ruins, but the war was far from over.
The Mekanic had been pushed into a corner; scythes carved slowly across the throats of the xenos.
It would be a drawn-out slaughter.
The Death Guard still had to remain wary of their enemy making a last desperate counterattack.
Meanwhile, on the other front, Rust's shattered manufactorums had begun sputtering back to life.
Guns and ammunition now rolled steadily off the assembly lines.
With the aid of Rust's Tech-Priests, the Death Guard rebuilt and reactivated the system's planetary defenses, focusing on the installations closest to the Mandeville Point.
Orbital defense stations that had been shattered by the xenos were towed from asteroid fields.
Though they could no longer function at full capacity, they were still enough to slow down enemy fleets.
The third mining moon, closest to the Mandeville Point, had been fortified anew.
Thanks to the Mekanic's careful preservation, its defense laser arrays were still functional.
The Legion remained locked in brutal battle against the Mekanic forces.
Against enemies powerful enough to devastate entire star systems, the Death Guard could not afford to be careless.
In fact, the Mekanic were far more formidable in space combat than in ground warfare.
Their bizarre technology and unpredictable fleet formations caused Mortarion's usual boarding tactics to fail again and again.
Left with no other option, Mortarion was forced to slowly and methodically break their formations, a tedious process that left the mortal crew aboard the Endurance miserable since they had to deal with Mortarion's personal interrogation sessions.
On the far side of the system, the defensive array had been deployed by local commanders.
Within the Death Guard, the Astropaths were chanting anxiously.
Through their unrest, Hades knew: the Rangdan fleet was drawing near.
Strangely, the moment he approached them to ask questions, the Astropaths seemed to grow even more disturbed.
Hades silently—and awkwardly—chose to ignore that detail.
Despite the hostile attitude of the Lion, the intelligence provided by the Dark Angels was still accurate.
Using the data from the First Legion, Hades was able to roughly estimate the size of the incoming xeno fleet.
Well… it was a lot.
But the good news was: they were running low on resources.
Apparently, their last campaign in another star system had drained them heavily.
This meant they were desperate for Rust's resources, and the Death Guard would be the ones standing in their way, scythes in hand.
According to the Black Legion's data, the Rangdan xenos were tall, hunched, humanoid beings.
Each individual possessed the ability to manipulate biological minds to varying degrees.
The higher the rank of a Rangdan, the stronger its psychic control.
A powerful Rangdan lord could even command a small army entirely by itself.
In combat, these fearsome aliens would simultaneously launch mental attacks on their enemies.
Only those with extremely strong wills could resist a Rangdan's psychic assault.
Those who failed would become their mind-slaves.
Based on firsthand experience from the Dark Angels, typical Astartes were generally resistant to Rangdan control, and so were particularly strong-willed mortals.
However, if an Astartes was emotionally unstable or physically weakened, they could still fall under their sway.
The Rangdan were extremely deadly in one-on-one combat, but their fleets were low on ammunition.
Their strategy had become clear:
They wouldn't try to fight the Death Guard in space battles.
Instead, they would force the engagement into close quarters, turning fleet combat into duels of blade and bolter.
As the defenders, the ideal strategy was obviously to fight a ranged fleet war, using Rust's manufacturing output to kite the enemy fleet to death.
Unfortunately… Hades currently didn't have many ships available for deployment.
The reason lay in the neighboring star system—where Mortarion was currently leading the Death Guard fleet in a campaign to hunt down the Mekanics. Compared to Rangdan, the Mekanics were more adept at fleet warfare.
As a result, the Death Guard had no choice but to divert the majority of their forces to eliminate the Mekanics.
Although the Death Guard currently controlled most of the star system, the arrival of the Rangdan would put them in a situation of being attacked from both front and rear. Two battlefronts, with neither one could be allowed to collapse.
If either one did, it would spell disaster for the Death Guard.
But Hades believed Mortarion would not be defeated, just as Mortarion believed Hades would be able to hold off the Rangdan's fleet.
A dry wind blew across the third mining moon. The sensor array watched the heavens, silently monitoring the stars and the barely perceptible warp fluctuations.
At last, a faint ripple flickered near Rust Mandeville Point.
Hades, who had been dozing, opened his eyes and stared at the command display aboard the Reaper's Scythe. A flood of warnings overwhelmed the screen.
The Rangdan had arrived.
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