Chapter 162: So I Was Bombed, Huh
The weak light creaked as it struggled against the darkness.
Hades stared at the lamp and thought, when it comes to turning off lights to save energy, Death Guard soldiers, aside from the Night Lord, must have the most complete expertise.
Cloudy days were perfect for sleeping. Not long after Apothecary Leo left, Hades began to feel drowsy. Arguing with a tireless being like Trazyn was simply too draining. So he decisively closed his eyes and fell asleep.
When he opened his eyes again, he was startled by Mortarion, who sat silently in the darkness.
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
Mortarion didn't respond and remained silent.
?
Hades' heart sank.
"...What's wrong?"
Hades asked nervously.
A near-silent, rasping voice came from behind Mortarion's breathing mask:
"...You're still alive."
Hades froze for a moment.
What do you mean he's still alive? Of course he's still alive.
Hades blinked.
Oh, right, he had unleashed the Black Domain at the end there, and from the look of it, he had even used a bit of the C'tan's power?
And then he blacked out. After that, the "Lord of Figurines" picked up his unconscious body.
Hmm… thinking about it, when he activated the Black Domain, others nearby Space Marine were likely semi-stunned, while the Necrons wouldn't have been affected at all.
That would have left the assault team in a very dangerous situation...
Hades' heart sank again.
"How's the assault team?" he asked.
Mortarion replied slowly, "...All alive."
Then the Primarch added, "I'm talking about the Death Guard one."
Hades naturally followed up with another question:
"What about the Iron Warriors?"
Mortarion fell silent.
The two of them sank into silence again.
Hades was full of questions, but the most likely explanation was that Mortarion and Perturabo didn't get along, and Mortarion wasn't happy to see his warriors worrying about soldiers from another legion.
"Um... I was just casually asking about the casualty report."
Under the hood, Mortarion's eyes were dark and unreadable as he stared at Hades.
"And what would your ideal outcome be?" he asked.
Hades blinked.
"Although I'm a Death Guard warrior, if warriors from other legions who fought alongside me suffered heavy casualties, that would also reflect poorly on my own competence."
Mortarion looked away, grumbling unhappily:
"Zero deaths."
Hades sensed that something was off, like the eerie calm before a storm.
Even if Mortarion and Perturabo didn't get along, Mortarion shouldn't have any reason to discriminate against the entire Iron Warriors legion, right?
"You don't seem too pleased about the Iron Warriors' zero casualty rate?" Hades probed carefully.
"You still haven't realized what happened?" Mortarion suddenly said in a sullen tone. "Yeah, maybe you really don't know what happened afterward."
"Why would I care about the Iron Warriors' casualties? Does that bastard care about the Death Guard's?!"
"After you disabled the ground anti-air defenses, that bastard immediately ordered an airstrike over the entire area!"
"While the Death Guard forces were still present, and with you, the commander of the Death Guard, were still in that area!"
"He ordered an indiscriminate bombing of the whole sector!"
"That bastard, he doesn't care about his own sons because he knows they'll dig tunnels to avoid the airstrikes," Mortarion growled.
"But he just left the Death Guard exposed in that whole sector!"
A rapid-fire stream of Barbarusian curses burst from Mortarion's mouth, his words coming so fast they were almost incomprehensible.
Hades had good reason to believe Mortarion had already cursed like this countless times before.
From "heartless chunks of corpse meat" to "dead toads in the mud," Mortarion basically unleashed every curse word Barbarus had ever invented.
"They say my tactics are too brutal? Too extreme?"
"And this, this is what they call rational tactics? Bombing your own allies?!"
Hades silently shifted his gaze to the dimly flickering desk lamp nearby.
Hey, look at that lamp... it sure looks like a lamp.
Ahem, no, Hades forced himself back to reality.
No wonder Mortarion was so out of sorts, it turned out the Death Guard had been bombed by Perturabo's orders.
Wait— what?!
Hades couldn't hold back anymore.
Sure, he knew Perturabo was like this, but that had always been a joke, nothing more than a meme a meme. Now, Perturabo had actually stabbed the Death Guard in the back for the sake of the battle!
Hades felt like he was about to cough up blood. He had definitely overlooked this, he had forgotten that some Primarchs would actually pull a stunt like this.
Thinking ahead, if there were future operations involving other Legions like Ferrus Manus or Horus Lupercal, he had to ensure that the Death Guard controlled their own battlefield's air defense and support.
But right now… Hades looked at Mortarion, who was still furiously spitting curses, and realized that he needed to calm the Primarch down.
Except— what was there to calm down?! He was the one who got bombed!
He was the one who should be the angriest!
If the Lord of Figurines hadn't shown up, he would be dead right now!
Sure, Hades had always accepted that he would eventually die on some battlefield, either in a battle that would be recorded in the history books or just a forgotten skirmish.
But not like this.
Not by friendly fire.
A wave of helplessness, mixed with rage and bitter absurdity, surged up through the dim lighting, washing over Hades like it was mocking him.
Hades took a deep breath.
"Mortarion?"
The Primarch's cursing came to a sudden halt. Mortarion looked at Hades, his eyes also burning with anger.
"I just have one question," Hades said, his voice steady.
"Did you try to chop up Perturabo?"
Mortarion froze.
In the Primarch's mind, Hades had always been the one trying to smooth things over with a smile (and had even been voted the "Best Tempered" among the Death Guard).
Just moments ago, Hades had been asking about the Iron Warriors' casualty numbers.
But hearing Hades' words, Mortarion let out a cold laugh.
See? Even Hades couldn't tolerate what Perturabo had done.
"I did," Mortarion said proudly, with a hint of satisfaction.
"No one harms the Death Guard and gets away without paying in blood."
Mortarion began recounting how he had attacked Perturabo.
In fact, after Mortarion first struck Perturabo, he even tried dragging him toward the dueling cages, but each time, Perturabo refused.
Not that it mattered. Every time Perturabo refused him, Mortarion would simply start a small duel in the corridors of the Iron Blood, Perturabo's flagship, usually while smashing his censer into the walls, leaving the whole hallway soaked in corrosive poison gas and unusable for long periods.
The hallways would fill with Mortarion's special toxin, and aside from the Deathshroud Terminators who had special respirators and were tough enough to withstand it, the Iron Warriors would collapse in fits of coughing.
Perturabo would glare at Mortarion in fury, and Mortarion would glare back, cold and furious.
"You are the worst 'brother' I have ever met," Perturabo snapped.
"You just think that because you were born on some filthy agrarian world, you can trample all over the Imperium's discipline, spreading your disgusting toxins wherever you go!"
"The Emperor never told me that 'Imperial discipline' involved bombing your own allies," Mortarion retorted and then charged in with his scythe.
Hades listened to Mortarion's relentless vendetta against Perturabo and swallowed hard, unsure whether to laugh or groan in anguish.
According to Mortarion, he had already successfully rendered three corridors aboard the Iron Blood completely unusable.
Just picturing Perturabo standing there, staring at the corrosive gas leaking through his flagship's halls, made Hades want to laugh, but realistically, he felt the partnership between the Death Guard and the Iron Warriors was basically dead.
And beyond that, there's also the matter regarding Mortarion's and the Death Guard's reputation among the other Legions... if word of this got out...
Hades looked at Mortarion.
He wanted to say, Maybe you don't care about your own reputation or ours, but he cares!
Perturabo was an absolute bastard, yes, but that didn't mean he didn't have friends among the Primarchs. He actually got along pretty well with Magnus, for one.
This situation…
Yeah, this was basically a social death.
Hades just about coughed up his soul.
But Mortarion was still right to do it!
What Hades didn't know, however, was that Mortarion's relentless assaults had, in fact, succeeded in making Perturabo realize that he had probably just ordered an airstrike that almost killed a very important Death Guard.
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