Chapter 450 The secondary objective is also important:
Atar Median Forge World.
Airport, inside a mechanical ark.
The ruling sage Hieronymus Gant stood alone in the center of the laboratory, holding a data tablet between his exquisite mechanical tentacles. He was looking down and watching silently. Six dark green mechanical prosthetic eyes were flashing meaningless lights.
The image on the data tablet was a little shaky, and the camera was always facing the sky, in an upward shooting angle. This video was taken from the mechanical prosthetic eye of a Skitarii Alpha, and the recorded scene was the Titan battle on the forge world of Al Yes, the fierce battle between the Hunter Legion and the Three Stars Legion.
In the rugged and sloping valley, a Warlord-class Titan was slowly approaching a Predator-class Titan. This Warlord-class Titan was scratching the ground randomly like a wild beast, giving off a weird feeling. Even through the screen, the Sage Ruler felt a trace of animal-like fear of danger. It was conceivable how terrified the Predator-class Titan crew would be when facing this thing. Then something even more surprising happened. This Warlord-class Titan actually raised its head and let out a deafening and violent howl.
Titans can actually scream?
"Gears and cogs. What in the name of Mars have these people done to the holy engine?"
The ruling sage talked to himself.
The scenes in the video continue to play.
The Warlord Titan approached fiercely and quickly. Before the Predator Titan could raise its weapon to aim, it was hit by it. The Warlord Titan's shoulder hit the cockpit, and the Predator Titan was hit hard. The two Titans pushed each other and fought like wild beasts.
Facing the Predator-class Titan, the Warlord-class Titan had an absolute advantage in both strength and weight, shaking the Predator back again and again. The Warlord swung its Fallen Angel-type power claws, first breaking a pipe, then tearing off an arm... It was extremely ferocious and violent, but it seemed to have no brains - not only the Sage of Domination, but also the Predator-class Titan in the video realized this. The Medium Titan moved sideways to dodge, dissolving the Warlord-class Titan's momentum. The Large Titan was unable to react and rushed forward, but stumbled and had to raise its power claws to hold the cliff to prevent itself from falling completely to the ground.
Smart choice, beautiful operation.
The Sage Ruler could not help but praise the pilots of the Predator-class Titan. Although the Titans of the Hunter Corps did not have the violent power of Chaos, they still had reason and knew how to adopt strategies, although such strategies were not enough to close the gap in combat power between large and medium Titans.
The ruling sage is mentally prepared.
Be prepared to see a Marauder-class Titan die.
The large Titan, which had been reduced to a demonic engine, immediately pulled its claws out of the rock wall and turned to chase the Predator Titan. The Predator Titan was fleeing along the steep mountain road, its mechanical claws hooked on the side of the mountain wall, only a hundred meters away from the depression below, and was in danger. In the video, Skitarii Alpha also turned and ran. The white snow drifted through the darkness, and the unfathomable ravine was in full view.
So far, all the scenes in the video were within the expectations of the Sage Ruler. Even though the strange Titan that was corrupted by the devil was not the first time it appeared, the existence of these blasphemous machine gods had always been highly confidential by the Titan Order, but the Sage Ruler's position allowed him to understand these secrets.
"boom--"
The picture was suddenly flooded with blue light.
Skitarii Alpha's mechanical eye was certainly much better than that of the Skitarii Vanguard and Skitarii Ranger, but the mechanical eye that recorded this picture was still overexposed, and within two or three seconds, the entire screen was only left with blue and white horizontal stripes flickering. When the electronic sensory components recovered their vision and the picture refocused, the Sage of Domination suddenly discovered...
The Warlord-class Titan shoulder disappeared.
The Demon Titan stood blankly on the cliff.
The missing shoulder revealed charred and melted precision parts and wiring pipes, and there was some disgusting substance like fleshy growth between the cables and gears. The next second, a giant black tail with thorns flashed across the screen.
"Bang!"
The Demon Titan's head was blown off.
The headless fuselage let out an inhuman and distorted wail.
What is that!?
The Sage Ruler was shocked and quickly watched the footage again. The video speed slowed down to an extremely slow speed, and the images flashed by frame by frame. The long black tail was fixed in the middle of the screen, similar to the tail of some reptile, with flaky thorns on one side that ranged from large to small. The thorns were extremely sharp and easily cut through the structure between the Demon Titan's head and the fuselage.
Skitarii Alpha was also surprised.
Soon, the overall image of the instigator appeared on the screen. It was a mountain-like black monster that easily climbed over the ridge, almost filling the valley with its body. Snow, gravel, and sand rolled down the cliff. The monster stared at the surviving Predator-class Titan, with a murderous look in its sharp eyes. The Predator-class Titan was so scared that it stood still and dared not move. However, the monster seemed to have received some instructions and ignored the medium-sized Titan and turned and left.
Why is this happening?
I came back to my senses after recovering from the shock of the monster.
The ruling sage quickly noticed this anomaly.
Why didn't it attack the Predator-class Titan?
The Sage Ruler's mind moved, and the video screen froze the moment when the monster's entire body appeared, zooming in, zooming in, and a clear figure appeared above the monster's head: a Space Marine wearing black and gold power armor and holding a chainsaw sword.
Hiss...Iron Pagoda Regiment!
The ruling sage still remembers this color combination clearly.
Why are they here again?
The matter of the four-armed Titan is not over yet. Sage Xiao Fei of the Phaeton Forge World is very determined. This technical priest from the Firebee Corps has no respect for Mars. He is tight-lipped about the technology related to the four-armed Titan and is neither willing nor willing to accept any form of negotiation and exchange. It is really abominable. Now another black behemoth has appeared. Sage Gant is very suspicious that this black behemoth is the work of Quinto.
The Sage Ruler did not know Xiao Fei, because Xiao Fei was just a small holy relic keeper in the Firebee Corps, responsible for maintaining Titan. But he knew Master Quinto, and the two were colleagues and members of the Martian Forging Council.
Master Quinto was also a well-known biological sage in the past, and he controlled his own forge temple - otherwise the White Scar Primarch would not have sent someone to escort him back to Mars. Later, for some reason, Quinto took the initiative to ask the forge commander to dispatch him to a scientific research station in a remote star region to serve as the forge director there - yes, in the eyes of Martians, Phaeton is not a forge world at all, at best it is a research station, Mars is the place closest to the God of All Machines, unless exiled, no one wants to go to such a desolate place.
Now it seems that this move...
It was all to avoid the review of the Forging Council!
"Quinto Anastasio..."
The Sage Ruler lowered his voice and said,
"Damn those alien factions!"
Four-armed Titans and black behemoths, what is Phaeton Forge World researching? Even if the Sage of Domination is really slow, he can see at this moment that Phaeton Forge World definitely has some special relationship with the Iron Pagoda Chapter. Although Qingshan Khan is a master forger, the Iron Pagoda Chapter is a White Scars Chapter, not an Iron Hands Chapter. They are not the kind of Space Marines who openly believe in the Way of the Om Messiah. This chapter has a good relationship with Mars, but it is also limited.
The Ruling Sage extended a mechanical tentacle with a miniature laser cutting device at the end of the finger. It slowly burned and carved a line of small words on the metal table in front of him:
Qingshan Khan.
The ruling sage thought silently.
This person will not be eliminated until the next day.
His secrets could never be safe.
The Sage Ruler raised his head, his mechanical eye glowed, and activated the intracranial wireless communication data connection:
"Someone, notify Skitarii Alpha, Frinos-361-A2, and have him come see me immediately."
"Confirmed, Sage Ruler."
The servant outside the door immediately sent back a response.
Frinos-361-A2 is the Skitarii Alpha that recorded the battle of the Black Beast.
Not long after, two servitors dressed in noble and gorgeous clothes and with exquisite mechanical modifications led a Skitarii Alpha in. This Martian radiation soldier looked exactly like the Skitarii Vanguard: he was wearing a red robe with gear edges and gray metal armor, and his Skitarii pot-lid helmet completely covered his face. Only the golden gear helmet crown on the top of the helmet reminded others that he was an Alpha team leader.
Before entering the Mechanical Ark, Skitarii Alpha had already removed all their weapons. The three of them came before the Sage of Domination, bowed, and sent a message at the same time:
"Respected Sage of Domination, Master Hieronymus Gant, the living embodiment of the wrath of the Machine God, the ruler of the Machine Legion. I pay you the highest respects."
The Sage of Domination raised a tentacle:
"Okay, no need to be polite... wait!"
The Sage Ruler suddenly stared at Skitarii Alpha, his three pairs of mechanical eyes flickering continuously, his few remaining sparse eyebrows knitted tightly together, and he said grimly,
"I am reading your personal information tag. There is nothing wrong with your service experience. However, just three weeks ago, there was a trace of tampering in your file information. A piece of data was erased and byte moved in a very careful manner... Unfortunately, I still found it in the scan."
Hearing the words of the Sage Ruler, the two seemingly unarmed mechanical servants immediately opened their gorgeous robes, revealing a large number of Mechanicus-specific weapons: arc hammers, taser sticks, radium pistols, high-frequency knives, dart pistols, gamma pistols... all pointed at Skitarii Alpha. The Skitarii captain was immediately surrounded by guns.
The laboratory door opened quickly.
Two five-meter-tall Castellan intelligent robot soldiers walked in with a "dong dong dong" sound, and their arms and the weapons on their left shoulders were pointed at the Crusader Alpha from a high position.
The scene became quiet for a moment.
"You tried to deceive a ruling sage in the data field! Ridiculous, ignorance makes you arrogant, your flaws and loopholes are as obvious to me as oil stains on the circuit! Tell me, who are you and why do you want to enter the mechanical ark?"
The ruling sage asked sternly.
"Hehehe…"
Skitarii Alpha laughed.
His gender is listed as male in his profile, but the voice is clearly female. Captain Alpha was calm and unhurried, slowly unfastening the buttons of his armor and robes. The armor, red robes and shoulder pads fell to the ground, revealing his graceful figure wrapped in a tight black uniform. Skitarii Alpha finally raised his hand to take off his closed helmet, revealing a masked face without eyepieces and filled with can-shaped metal implants.
The ruling sage exclaimed in horror,
"The Vanus Assassin!"
At the moment when the ruling sage lost his mind.
"Data flood erosion!"
The black-clad assassin stared fixedly at the ruling sage.
"Sizzle! Crack!"
The two servitors beside the Vanus assassin and the two Castellan intelligent robot soldiers behind him suddenly burst into sparks and arcs. All the weapons in their hands lost control and trembled and could not fire. The smell of burnt circuits wafted in the air, and the body jammed and bounced. With two "puffs", the fully armed servitors fell to the floor, and the intelligent robot soldiers were also frozen and unable to move. The firepower surrounding the assassin was instantly lifted.
Only the Sage of Domination was still trying his best to raise his mechanical tentacles. The six mechanical eyes of Sage Gant were working at high speed. His face was tense and he squeezed out a voice intermittently:
"You are just an assassin. Don't even think about defeating the Mecha Servant. Your trick... can only last... for a short moment! When I escape, you will die!"
Vanus Assassins are data masters of the Assassin Court. They can mislead and eliminate enemies by intercepting communications and destroying signals. Some unfortunate assassination targets may even find that their weapons are suddenly aimed at themselves. However, these assassins are usually not the ones who carry out the assassination themselves. They are often located in the rear, using hacker abilities to track down the enemies of the Empire on the assassination list, and then handing them over to other assassins to carry out the mission. Few people can escape the attention of these typical data agents.
Time passes by second by second.
As the data clash intensifies.
The confidence of the ruling sage increased greatly.
Although Vanus Assassin is also very strong.
But in the end, he was no match for the Sage of Domination!
The Sage of Domination, Hieronymus Gant, was not a mediocre person, and the Sage of Nemonix was just an exception. In the field of data, few people could surpass Mars.
"Uh-huh, huh?"
The Vanus Assassin chuckled.
At this moment, the left one of the two mechanical servants lying on the floor with smoke all over his body suddenly changed and pulled, as if he was melting rapidly. In an instant, he changed from a stiff and rigid mechanical servant to a masked young lady wrapped in a tight black uniform, with a brown-red big braid on his head that hung all the way down to his waist.
The assassin girl bent her long legs, her muscles tensed and bulged, and she suddenly pushed the ground with force. With a "snap", she rushed out at a speed comparable to that of an Astarte. On the outside of her wrist was a dark green straight-bladed rapier made of an unknown mysterious metal. Like a female leopard hunting, the blade swung and turned into a black shadow and a green light, rushing straight towards the Sage Ruler.
The ruling sage was caught off guard.
"Swish!"
The Sage of Domination had a lot of mechanical prosthetics all over his body, but the moment he was touched by the strange green sword, there was no sound of clashing. It was extremely smooth and natural, and the blade easily cut half of the technical priest's body.
"Pah…"
The Ruling Sage broke into two halves and fell to the ground.
"Callidus..."
The voice box in the throat uttered the last word.
The ruling sage's body collapsed and fell apart.
However, the black-clad assassin has not stopped yet.
The knife in his hand flew quickly, cutting through the body of the Ruling Sage in all directions. Every data storage core and every computing enhancement component were cut into waste fragments by the green blade, and no mechanical prosthetic modification survived.
"I am the daughter of Callidus."
The female assassin in black said:
"I bring death in the name of the Emperor."
Ended this sudden killing.
The Vanus Assassin looked around the laboratory.
This was a carefully planned assassination. The Sage Ruler had never thought that the tampering trace in the Skitarii Alpha information file was left by her on purpose, in order to attract the Sage Ruler's attention and make him focus on her, thus ignoring that one of his servitors had already been replaced by the assassin Callidus.
"The target is confirmed dead."
The Vanus female assassin said calmly:
"Mission completed, prepare to evacuate."
Suddenly, she found that her teammates were staring at the experimental table next to the body of the Ruling Sage without moving.
"What's wrong with you?"
The Vanus Assassin asked in confusion.
"Nothing, just found an interesting name."
The Callidus Assassin said.
Her palm gently stroked the sunken pattern etched into the metal tabletop, which read "Qingshan Khan".
"Don't make things complicated."
Vanus Assassin warned:
"Let's go. We must evacuate here as soon as possible before the guards on the Mechanical Ark react."
"OK."
The Callidus Assassin said softly.
…
Some may escape the judgment of the Arbites, fewer may stand up to the Imperial Guard and the Adeptus Astartes, but they will all eventually learn...
No one can resist the Assassin's Court.
——"Assassins Court Second Edition Rulebook"
…
Assassin's Court Order: Operation Knight's Death
Publisher: Operation Instructor
Shipping method: Only personal delivery
Date: █████
Location: █████
Clearance Level: Vermillion
+DO NOT TRANSMIT+
+DO NOT COPY+
+DESTRUCT AFTER READING+
Targets:
Hieronymus Gante, c. 675.
Logician, level Super Rationalist; Forger, level Source Lord; member of the Mars Forging Council (for the full title, please see the purple-red level briefing material, separately packaged). Three months ago in Terra time, he was appointed by the Forge Master Zagreos Kane to serve as the Sage Commander of all Mechanicus forces in the Iron Belt War Zone, and his term of office will last until the end of the war.
Hieronymus Gant secretly contacted Sage Nemonix of the "Data Regulation" sect of the local Mechanicus sect on the world of Orestes Knights (it has now been revealed that the tech-priest is a follower of Nurgle), plotting to murder the Draconis family, a loyal Imperial Knight family, leading to the annihilation of all members of the Draconis family, and causing the deployment of all Titan legions in the Iron Belt to be leaked, resulting in heavy losses.
There is no indication that Hieronymus Gant has abandoned his loyalty to the Empire, but the interests of the Adeptus Mechanicus and his own personal interests clearly outweigh those of the Empire, and his position means that his presence will greatly threaten the security of the Empire.
Security threat level: Very high
evidence:
The report comes from Grand Inquisitor Sid Nora.
Primary goals:
The Imperial Senate authorizes the members of the execution squad to use all possible means to eliminate Hieronymus Gant.
Secondary Objectives:
The Imperial Senate approved the execution team to use all feasible means to mitigate the collateral damage that might be caused by the death of the Dominant Sage, and try not to affect the operation of the Iron Belt War Zone.
+Actions speak for themselves, the end speaks for the means+
+The order is over, destroy immediately+
…
It wasn't more than five minutes after the Ruling Sage died.
This alarmed the guards on the mechanical ark.
A large number of Crusaders and technical priests rushed into his laboratory and found that the Sage Ruler himself had been turned into a pile of mechanical debris, lying in a pool of blood and engine oil.
The Tech-Priest immediately began surveying the scene.
One detail at the scene of the incident is puzzling.
On the experimental table of the Dominant Sage, the center of the metal tabletop was cut by some sharp weapon, and there were a bunch of messy and dense scratches all over it. All the technical priests didn't know what these scratches meant or what their meaning was. It seemed as if... some information was being covered up?
...
Thanks to Votamarina, book friend 20210918224740785, J-chan, book friend 161124173429345, SCP _166's observer, book friend 20210918224740785, Shadow Wind Zhongshang, and several book friends for their rewards.
There are quite a few pictures in this chapter, and some of them are destined to have a short lifespan, so please take a look at them and cherish them.
(End of this chapter)