40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 576 94. Dark Crusade (Twenty-one, Hive Will)

Khalil slowly stopped.

He looked up and stared at the sky. Sosa's sky was probably very beautiful. Khalil had never seen it, but he was willing to imagine it. He felt that Sosa's sky was most likely a very peaceful and beautiful light blue.

This planet and its galaxy are located at the very edge of the Empire's territory. There are occasional wars, but they have never been ravaged. The Emperor's Scythe takes good care of it and even has the spare capacity to patrol other nearby planets.

They are role models, just like all the other sons of Robert Guilliman. And now, only one in ten of them remains.

The same is true for Sosa. No matter how beautiful the sky of this planet was, whether it has the texture of an oil painting and intoxicating clouds, it is now a burning red.

There are no clouds or blue sky, and peace no longer exists. The aftermath of the war of the Combined Fleet has spread here, and the wreckage of the warships captured by Sosa's gravity is breaking into the atmosphere.

Most of them were destroyed by the weapons array of the space station in orbit, and only a few of them escaped and launched an assault on the surface of Sosa. Among them were fragments of metal warships and huge pieces of broken Zerg flesh. But more of them were spores. This meant that the first attack phase of the Zerg Hive Fleet had arrived - several pioneer ships that broke through the blockade by relying on numbers and luck were releasing spores into Sosa's atmosphere under their instinctive urging. In terms of their size, the bugs carried by these spores would not be very large, and some might even be similar to the real "bugs" on Sosa, but they were still Zerg, and size could not be an important factor in judging the degree of danger. These tiny parasites would break into the atmosphere under the protection of the spores, quickly land on the surface of Sosa, and transform its rich soil into something completely different. After this process was over, they would be eager to attack the plants. Within a few hours, all the native plants on the surface of Sosa would complete their last genetic mutation and become a deadly species that could convert oxygen into toxins. They are about to become the driving force behind the infamous dark red sky during the Zerg invasion.

After that, their large forces will appear on the stage.

Belisarius Cawl clenched his giant axe in a low voice and activated this brutal weapon. In its humming sound, his voice sounded no different from the roar of the tank engine.

"Are you sure you don't need me to activate my laser protection network? I have made a plan for this day. Before the energy is exhausted, they can intercept any spores that may fall near the city."

"Dear Cawl, I still don't think it's necessary."

Khalil looked at the sky and spoke softly. After saying this, he lowered his head and looked at the great sage who was much taller than him.

"And, compared to this, I'm more curious about why you insist on staying by my side. This will become the most dangerous battlefield. Can't your smart mind foresee this?"

"Do you want a hypocritical answer or a real answer?"

Khalil smiled and shook his head: "From the time we met until now, you have always acted very real-so I guess the answer is something like experimental data?"

"Indeed." Cawl said, and raised his great axe through the right appendage of his body.

The sharp side of the axe gleamed, and it didn't look like the work of the Mechanicus. In fact, Khalil was sure that he saw a personal emblem belonging only to Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Tenth Legion, on the side of the axe.

How interesting. He thought. I'm a little doubtful whether I've been dead for ten thousand years or a hundred thousand years.

"You are very frank, so I will be frank as well. To date, I have collected most of the Primarch's combat data through various means. Some are written descriptions, and some are video records."

"I have many missions, at least twelve of which are directly issued by the Golden Throne and the Sigillite. I cannot reveal the details to you, but I can guarantee that these materials will be of great help to my mission."

"For example, the cruelty and swiftness of Lion El'Jonson, the bravery and fortitude of Angron"

He mysteriously stretched out an appendage, then clenched it and shook it, as if he was holding a flask in his hand and he was in a laboratory. He did not continue the topic, and Khalil shook his head slowly.

"You should be glad that I am an open-minded person, Cawl."

"And I am a conservative." The great sage laughed strangely. "When I first knew about your existence, I was even a little reluctant to accept it."

"So, what prompted you to accept it?"

Cawl did not answer this sentence, but lowered the axe. His visual sensors - and any implants that were included in the perception range were screaming at his nerves.

The burden caused by so many components roaring together was amazing, but Cawl could still bear it, and even seemed a little relaxed.

He recorded the scene in front of him through his artificial eyes without saying a word. In his vision, Khalil Rohals's eyes had become two doors connected to the Sea of ​​Destruction.

They were flesh and blood, soft eyeballs that stayed in their sockets safely, but they were also the direct medium for a psychic tide that swept across an unknown number of meters.

The strong wind gradually rose, rising from a strong wind to a level that was difficult to judge within a few seconds. It rushed up to the sky visibly with the naked eye, completely occupying the entire burning curtain, as if it was splashed on the oil painting due to the shaking of the artist's hands. gray paint.

Kaul's alarm program started to sound the alarm, but he did not flinch. He just stretched out his appendages and fixed himself deeply in the wheat field not far outside the city.

They were in the eye of the storm, but the wheat around them only pressed down on them and did not even leave the soil.

A second later, the whirlwind that shot straight into the sky began to move, blowing bit by bit from one end of the wheat field to the other, without causing any damage. Not even a single ear of wheat left the bent main pole. .

Khalil walked calmly, and his whole body felt an unusual sense of 'activity'.

It tells him that this is just the beginning of the warm-up, and immediately urges him: harder!

Of course he didn't.

That's enough for now.

The sky began to spin, and the clouds stained by gunpowder smoke were dispersed. The spores burning across the sky were swept up together, and were quickly destroyed by the sharp cold wind, and the billions of parasites they carried were immediately released.

Dark, twisted, restless and only visible through a microscope. Fortunately, there are so many of them that even if you only look at it with the naked eye, you can clearly see how this black tapestry is gradually decomposed in the storm.

They didn't make any sound, or show any regret or fear, and just died in the whirlwind without any reaction, but Kalil immediately sensed an indifferent and rational peek.

It does not come from a single individual, but a cluster, lurking in the parasite corpses that have not yet been decomposed and staring quietly. The number is enough to drive people crazy, but it contains the same will. Cold, ruthless, and greedy.

Khalil looked back calmly.

He got an indescribable shock.

He smiled as expected, turned around and shrugged at the huge chariot following him, and said: "The first step of the plan seems to have been successful, Caul - what is our first step? "

"I don't remember." The great sage answered honestly and sincerely. "I just want to know what's going to happen next."

He didn't get an answer, but Roboute Guilliman did, and he didn't want it.

He stood on his command platform, staring at the Hive Fleet. Then he discovered that the discrete pieces of flesh were merging.

They were once independent entities, with different types and minute external differences. But things are different now. The differences between the discrete pieces of meat are disappearing.

Boats and boats, bugs and bugs are gradually using their predatory tentacles to penetrate into each other's bodies in the vacuum, becoming more intimate. The biomass and passengers they carry are mingling in the backlog of flesh.

The pure-blooded Genestealer's body fragments were shattered together with the lowest gunworms, and the gargoyle's head and Likart's carapace were stitched together with the screams of the tearing bugs.

Of course Guilliman couldn't see such details, but he could see the big picture, so he could draw a conclusion with great clarity: the hive mothership was fusing all its ships.

Theoretically, this is completely possible, because the internal organs and blood of the bugs are smaller bugs, and their ships are also bugs.

This means that they can be combined like a common knife insect under the influence of the Hive Mind to form chitinous carapace, muscles, blood vessels and internal organs.

Guilliman tried hard to convince himself through this theory that was just born.

Okay, here are the questions and options.

Q: Why does it do this?

Option 1: Khalil Lohars.

Option 2: Khalil Lohars did something he wasn't told.

Option 3: Khalil Lohars carries out a crazy plan at the instigation of the damn audacious and stupid Belisarius Cawl.

Guilliman filled in all three options on the test paper, and then walked off the podium with a livid face.

This time, he practically ran to the communications array to hurry up the crew, and his frustrated helpers told him that Macragge's Flare still couldn't contact the surface of Sotha.

If Belisarius Cawl could find out about this, he would probably express great regret and then start promoting the various upgrade options he offered for Macragge's Glory. He had wanted to do this for a long time, but Guilliman didn't agree.

What's a pity is that Kaul doesn't know about this. He is currently busy calculating data and has no time to do anything else.

In the overlapping of data flows, Kaul gradually came to a conclusion: This illogical plan is likely to have taken effect, and success is only a matter of time.

Unlike others, Cawl did not view the Hive Mind as a living being. He did not believe that a creature of flesh and blood could do what it did to the Imperium.

Moreover, the Hive Mind strictly adheres to one principle: it will use any means to try any possibility in order to shorten the process of the war.

Looking at it this way, doesn't it look more like a programmed program?

Looking at the center of the increasingly dark sky, Call knew that this principle was once again working for the Hive Mind.

"The plan worked, Call."

Khalil declared calmly in the eye of the storm, turning his head to look at Call. He meant no harm, Call believed that, but he still had to pay the price for bearing such a look.

High-temperature steam gushes out from behind and is quickly torn apart by the storm. A certain fragment placed in the Great Sage's chest begins to emit stronger energy to supply the thirteen engines placed all over his body. Regardless of whether he needs it now.

But this is not what he cares about most now. Through the satellite, Kaul's field of vision is divided into sixteen small patches of uneven sizes. He observed the rough and huge battleship from various angles, still feeling pain in his heart.

Macragge's Glory is about twenty kilometers long, and this Zerg giant ship is about fourteen times its size. This is just the length, not to mention the width. The Hive Mind reduced complexity to simplicity, transforming all living ships in the fleet into parts for one giant ship

Kaul couldn't even imagine how dense this ship was. Moreover, it didn't even need to fire weapons. Its weight alone when hitting Sosa's surface would be enough to cause a huge disaster.

No matter how many times he studies the Zerg, this race can always bring him something new.

For a pure researcher, this is a good thing, as it means their thirst for knowledge can be satisfied again and again.

But Kaul is not a pure researcher. Whether others believe it or not, he embarked on this path to save mankind. From this perspective, he extremely hates the Zerg's endless pursuit. evolution.

He commanded the orbiting space station through the satellite and forcefully took over the weapons array that was firing at the giant ship according to the automatic program. Then he deployed the ground launch silo and took off forty airships.

His specially designed fighter servitors occupy every corner of these airship cabins, and they will support the space station that has been jumped. After doing this, Call concentrated on taking aim.

He wants to use maximum power to test the defensive capabilities of that giant ship.

Three minutes later, the station's weapons array fired a fiery torrent that lit up the night sky at the cost of temporary overheating. Kaul raised his head and began to observe using the sixteen satellite perspectives and the perspective of his own eyes. The results did not exceed his expectations.

Even at maximum power, the orbiting space station's weapon array failed to cause any damage to the giant ship.

This volley did penetrate its already ridiculously thick chitinous carapace and created a huge crater beneath it. But this was nothing to the ship, it had even begun to heal itself.

Kaul considered his words and spoke slowly in the sky that was almost completely dark.

"I must admit that you have an incomprehensible foresight. My satellites tell me that the Hive Fleet has gone crazy and has committed all its ships to a brutal biological fusion. "

"I have reason to believe that this is just to collect biomass to create a killer that can rival you in its eyes. This is all the same as what the plan said, but the problem is, we have to use the ship after the fusion is completed. What to do with the huge ship?”

"That ship won't be around much longer," Khalil said.

Twenty minutes later, his words came true again. Through the images provided by the satellite, Kaul clearly saw the latest status of the giant ship: it was disintegrating.

The carapace, which was hundreds of meters thick, was the first part to show such signs. The strange cold white color completely turned into pitch black in just a few minutes, and then shrank and turned into mucus.

The exposed flesh and blood under it followed closely behind, and huge blue-gray meridians of unknown purpose beat at high speed on its surface, causing the flesh and blood to wither quickly, and finally even turned into fly ash.

From bow to stern, every part of it began to disintegrate. The combined fleet did not even need to continue firing, and this unprecedented giant ship ushered in its demise bit by bit.

Its skeletal remains floated in the vacuum, quickly freezing, and had long since lost their activity. The originally occupied starry sky was now empty, but Call still found a small white object.

He controls satellites, mobilizes computing power, and magnifies images.

He saw an embryo.

No, not an embryo, but a small spaceship, except it looks like an embryo. The streamlined shape and its smooth white surface are full of deception. It is not big, not even as big as a Cobra-class destroyer, but it is extremely fast.

The engineered fumaroles placed on the sides of the spacecraft are helping it and its original approach to dart quickly into Sousa's orbit.

At this moment, no force can stop it.

The sky burned again, and a meteor-like light slowly streaked across the sky, heading straight towards the wheat field where they were.

Call felt a twinge. He didn't know where this emotion came from, but he hid it well and did not show it.

The only person who could capture this emotion at this moment did not pay attention to him at all. He was staring at the sky intently. The light in his eyes gradually disappeared, and the strong wind disappeared together. However, Call heard a command at this moment. His blood-curdling hiss.

It was not a language, but a sound coming from inside his body. He immediately checked himself and discovered that at least hundreds of data processing interfaces were disintegrating, their collective damage sending a message to Caul.

The next second, electric sparks suddenly burst out from inside Cawl's body, the gears stopped turning, and the inevitable overload and high temperature spread from his feet, instantly igniting the wheat field.

In the choking smoke emitted by the burning wheat ears, Cawl roared in shame.

He was invaded.

He - the great sage Belisarius Cawl - was invaded by the hive mind through psychic power!

A shadow passed in front of him, and Cawl watched furiously but unable to move as the spaceship flew across the sky and slowly descended, landing smoothly in front of them without making any sound. The wheat field continued to burn, and soon turned the surrounding world into a hellish scene.

In the lingering smoke, the white shell of the hull suddenly cracked, and then faded like a withered flower, fell into the mud on both sides, and quickly turned into ashes.

A tall humanoid creature stood up from the center of the hull.

It also had a white carapace, and four strong arms hung down on both sides of its body. Bone blades that were much sharper than blades popped out quickly on the sides of its arms, cutting off some of the blood and flesh pipes connected to its body.

It was tall, but its posture was hunched, its back was bent, its legs were bent deep into the ground, and its muscles slowly expanded under its smooth carapace. Its smooth oval head quietly turned in the direction of Kaul.

At this moment, Kaul lost his vision.

His optic nerves felt a burning pain, and the error prompts of the implants were uninterrupted. The data flow passed through his processor like a collapsed mountain, bringing a nightmare experience.

His backup visual sensor unit was quickly activated by instinct, and then it was damaged again, activated again, and damaged again.

Kaul had to manually program the photosensitive unit in the visual sensor and other sensory processors to temporarily reorganize a new "visual" system, and more data streams continued to fly by.

He wanted to continue observing the battle in this way, but failed. At this moment, in the world of 0s and 1s composed of data, a large area of ​​black garbled code that did not belong to any number suddenly appeared.

As soon as they appeared, they swarmed in, rushing into Caul's data processor like millions of bloodthirsty flying insects, forcing his already overloaded processor and brain to continue to overload

He fell to the ground, twitching in the constant electric sparks.

Khalil noticed this.

"You should focus on me." He said slightly surprised. "He should not be a threat to you."

The thing turned its head and looked at him. Its head was still smooth, but Khalil could see a pair of eyes. These eyes were hanging high above the creature's head, an ancient existence from outside the Milky Way, carrying an endless and eternal hunger.

These eyes looked at him.

"Then let's start." Khalil nodded at it and walked towards it in the sky full of fire.

The creature stood there waiting for him, without taking the initiative to attack. Their behavior made the opening of this battle very strange. There was no wind that could tear the earth apart or force that could shatter the mountaintops. It was just one side moving forward and the other side waiting.

It was not until Khalil walked in front of it that the creature finally changed its posture. In the microseconds that could not be called time, its four arms that were originally relaxed suddenly clenched and swung upwards.

The bone blades wrapped with powerful psychic energy brushed Khalil's face by a millimeter. He watched the four sharp blades slashing into the sky without blinking, and was sincerely surprised by this attack without any warning.

He could dodge it, yes, but the speed and strength shown by this creature.

Could Robert Guilliman, who did not have the forge in his heart, dodge this attack?

He began to make comparisons in his mind and came to a negative answer. He raised his head slightly and looked at the four shining bone blades. They were wrapped with psychic energy from the will of the hive. Khalil would not question their strength and sharpness.

He understood that any mundane metal - whether it was adamantium or radiant gold - could not resist these four bone blades.

In other words, if it was the Lord of Macragge ten thousand years ago, he would probably have been pierced through the armor by this creature in one encounter.

Khalil temporarily stopped thinking and threw a punch at a restrained speed, colliding head-on with the two sharp blades. He threw a fist, but what collided with two of the bone blades was a pitch-black straight knife.

The two psychic energies began to collide, and Khalil narrowed his eyes, ignoring the confrontation in this regard, just maintaining the output of psychic energy at a balanced point, and then began to wrestle with it with the knife.

The agent of the hive will roared silently, its shell was once again lifted by muscles, and the flames dancing around it left their own shadows on the white shell.

With a flash of light, its other two hands also chopped towards Khalil, but still failed to succeed. Khalil blocked the attack with his left hand, but was quite surprised - its speed became faster.

Isn't it the limit yet?

He clenched his hands and increased his strength. If you want to give a reference object, then his current strength is probably the same as Angron before his arm was broken.

The creature did not retreat under such heavy pressure, and it even had the strength to fight back. It raised its bone blade slightly, interrupted the wrestling, and slashed at his seemingly unprotected ribs with unimaginable speed.

Khalil stepped back to avoid the blow and engaged the creature in hand-to-hand combat with the speed of Lion El'Jonson's sword.

Two against four, but he has never been at a disadvantage. Every attack of the Hive Mind can be avoided by a hair's breadth, or he can simply slap away the bone blade before it touches him.

Although he seemed to be doing it with ease, Khalil became more and more serious as he fought. He could sense that this creature was getting stronger bit by bit.

Its strength and speed are being enhanced in this battle, not due to psychic energy or the influence of the Hive Mind, but from some kind of 'design' in its body.

In other words, it is realizing its potential bit by bit.

Where are its limits? Stronger than Vulcan? Faster than Corvus Corax? It doesn't even require any skills, just pure strength and speed are enough to destroy most of the warriors in the empire.

So, can it learn tricks? What about tactics? Needless to say, looking at those illusory eyes, Kalil knew that it could do this.

Zerg are capable of continuous evolution. They are genetically modified organisms that can evolve characteristics to completely suppress their enemies.

Thicker skin, greater strength, faster speed, strong self-healing ability, bioplasma that can destroy armor, and force field waves that can block communications.

It's really difficult for you to fight this kind of thing for almost ten thousand years, Robert.

Khalil exhaled softly, releasing the restrictions on his power.

With a flash of cold light, four arms flew high into the sky, tissue fluid spurted out from the large blood vessels buried deep in the flesh, and then were locked in place by the muscle fibers beating like independent living creatures at the wound, another pale white color Muscles spread rapidly from these granulations.

But in just a few seconds, it grew a new arm, and the bone blade popped out again, launching a new round of attack towards Khalil. But this time, the chitin carapace on its arms became thicker visible to the naked eye.

Not only that, their surfaces also changed. A kind of transparent film that Khalil didn't know what to call shone inconspicuously on the surface of the carapace.

Khalil tried to swing the knife again, but this time, the psychic energy failed to take effect on it, and was completely absorbed by the film.

He took a step back to avoid the monster's counterattack, increased his psychic output, and swung his sword again. The membrane shattered, and the two arms flew high again.

The monster retreated silently, and the carapace on its chest suddenly cracked, and several tentacles that looked like predatory tentacles popped out powerfully, bringing all six of its severed arms back into its body.

At this moment, it has been regenerated again. The membrane changes into another kind of carapace, covering the original white carapace. Its new arms look extremely burly due to this, but their shape has also changed.

It is no longer a structure that is similar to a human hand, but has turned into a mechanical structure. The bone blade has replaced the original forearm and has become thicker. They looked extremely deformed, but Khalil had no doubt about their lethality.

He couldn't fight any longer. He frowned.

There are many Hive Minds, and no one knows whether they can communicate with each other in some way. Each of these fleets has its own strengths, and has evolved into different shapes based on the defense forces of the different areas invaded.

Although the underlying logic is still similar and they still make good use of insect sea tactics, the differences between them are so large that it is difficult to classify them as the same race.

Khalil originally wanted to test the combat power of this creature in order to classify the files and promote research on the Zerg, but now, he changed his mind.

If the test continues, he feels that this creature may bring some not-so-good surprises to it.

However, there is still a very important question: Is this creature just an emergency plan, or is it an insectoid 'primarch' that has been prepared and can compete with the primarchs?

He narrowed his eyes, and his figure suddenly disappeared. When it reappeared, the two sharp blades had completely penetrated the monster controlled by the Hive Mind. He drew out the knife at a speed that brooked no resistance, and began to wave his arms with extreme concentration.

The precise and unstoppable slashes fell on the monster like a heavy rain, piercing it and defeating it. Its living tissue fluid and muscle fibers tried to embrace each other under the slashing of the blade, and continued to stick together, but Khalil did not hold back.

Minced meat and tissue fluid continued to splash out, and then were completely controlled by psychic energy. The wheat fields were burning, the sky was dark, and the brilliance of Macragge, approaching at great speed, was looming in the sky. There were no clouds in the sky, but it was raining in the wheat fields, a man-made rain.

The raindrops are minced meat and tissue fluid, the fragments of a powerful creature being dismembered and shot out again and again. It tried to resist, but resistance only brought more horrific violence.

Its instinct can no longer understand how to deal with such a 'battle'. In the higher-dimensional world, it is asking for help from the Hive Mind, but the Hive Mind cannot understand it either. It is confused.

It cannot understand why such an independent individual exists in the material world. When its agent was dismembered until only the twitching lower body was left, it realized that its judgment was wrong.

Moreover, this time there will be no chance of transferring to other planets to replenish biomass, that is to say, it is about to face it.

die?

Khalil answered its question by shaking his head.

——It still has a lot of bugs on the space station, but there is another alien staying there.

He took a step back and lowered his hands calmly. The blade close to his wrist disappeared into the wide cuffs like a poisonous snake returning to its nest.

Countless blue fluorescent lights floated around him, illuminating the entire wheat field and even leaving a huge projection in the sky. It looks beautiful and shocking, but if you look closely, you will find that it is actually all broken flesh and blood bound by spiritual energy.

Khalil turned around and walked towards Belisarius Call. The latter was continuously uttering expletives in binary language as he was struck by electric shocks.

Khalil reached out to pull him up and found that part of Call's appendages had returned to normal and were repairing themselves. Soon, he regained his sight.

At this moment, Kaul never thought that he still had the emotion of 'shock'.

He was speechless for a moment, staring at the blue light spots around him. The processor that had just calmed down for a while seemed to be on the verge of overheating. Fortunately, he quickly controlled this emotion, but the Great Sage's suffering today seemed to be still there. Not getting closure.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw another meteor streak across the sky. A few minutes later, a gunship slowly landed. Robert Guilliman, furious, pushed open the hatch and strode out, running towards Caul.

"Whose idea is this?!" the Lord of Macragge roared, his voice echoing throughout the cornfield.

Khalil stood aside silently.

Call looked at him in disbelief.

"Uh-" He tried to utter a single syllable, but Guilliman had already rushed in front of him and grabbed his appendage.

"What kind of engine have you installed on yourself, Great Sage?" Guilliman asked softly and with a ferocious expression.

".I modified and developed it myself."

"What about the energy source?"

"."

"What energy source have you installed on yourself, Great Sage?"

Khalil turned away and shook his head at the victorious troops who wanted to surround him, and they walked back to the gunboat with understanding. He looked up to the sky again and sincerely wished that Sosa would never have to suffer like this again.

Guilliman's voice came from behind him: "I think you should give me an explanation? Instructor?"

Khalil turned his head, blinked, and raised his hands without thinking: "I can write many written reports for you."