dmims 36 Iron 7's Rebellion
36 Iron 7's Rebellion
Unlike the brutal lower and middle nests and the outer perimeter of the nest capital.
The closer you get to the top of the nest, the less of that punk-like technological modification there is.
The street surface was free of any dirty soil or stones; the dust and ash were quickly absorbed by the ancient technological products in each building and discharged downwards through pipes.
Although the sky here is still dark gray and the sun is almost nowhere to be seen, the air quality is surprisingly good.
Walking on the undulating, uneven streets.
A man dressed in elegant, brightly colored clothing gently removed his hat and smiled at a timid-looking little girl who had come from Zhongchao, asking, "Would you like to come with me, child?"
The little girl, clutching her doll, said timidly, "Can you take me to find...?"
The man didn't hear what the girl said next, but he would agree with whatever she said.
He nodded gently, without taking the girl's wary hand.
He took a small, very old-fashioned camera out of his pocket, and with a click, the camera produced a photograph.
The man looked at the photo with satisfaction and wiped it with his hand.
He then looked at the wall behind the girl with some surprise, and then at the photo in his hand; the shadow was unusually large.
"Can you take me with you, sir?" the little girl said at the right moment.
The man immediately abandoned his attempt to figure things out, smiled, bowed, and gestured for the little girl to follow him.
The little girl hugged her doll tightly as she followed behind the man. Under the dim streetlights, their shadows stretched extremely long, with the little girl's broad shoulders taking up two-thirds of the space.
The two walked all the way to the noble area.
Before the guards could even ask any questions, they were berated by the man and ordered to get out.
Before the two could have any further questions and assumed the other party was a nobleman's private soldiers, two large hands silently pressed down on their heads and dragged them into Tie Qi's darkness.
The silent air was broken by two very faint clicking sounds before returning to stillness.
"I heard that many more people have died recently."
"Yes, the governor's guards have been replaced time and time again."
"·····"
"Our troops are deployed here at..."
The man walked on, puzzled and somewhat surprised.
Why are these usually indifferent and selfish colleagues so talkative today?
No one could see the man talking to himself, and everyone who approached was silently dragged into the darkness.
The man repeatedly changed his course, most recently stepping over a corpse, the crimson blood staining the soles of his shoes.
"It has a strange smell, it really stinks."
"It smells terrible."
The little girl, who had been silent all along, spoke calmly.
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"Dad, why is the fleet still there overhead?"
"Dad, I'm so scared."
The little girl put down her doll, which made a thud as it hit the wall. She clung to the man's leg, looking timidly at the Second Legion's main expeditionary fleet positioned on the tracks.
In fact, being able to see the fleet in orbit from the sky above Iron Seven, where the Milky Way is almost invisible, is something that surpasses the abilities of almost 90% of the people on this planet.
This planet can hardly be described as wealthy.
The minerals they own are not rare or important like adamantite.
Merchants and ronin recognized by the Empire, as well as large supply fleets, would subconsciously ignore this place and leave.
The man did not respond to his daughter. He calmly looked through the telescope in his hand, a gadget he had bought from a merchant some time ago for his amusement.
He could see it clearly through the lens.
The fleet above the orbit began to move, and one drop pod after another began to fall. Among these small, inconspicuous drop pods, there were two larger ones.
The man gave a bleak smile, stroked his daughter's hair, and said softly, "It will be soon."
Although he had never seen what those things that looked like beans were, which started to drop rapidly from the orbit, he was not an idiot. If they weren't going to throw out cannonballs and weapons from the huge ship, what else could they be but candy and supplies?
At the same time, he also began to get angry.
He didn't understand why the governor insisted on calling in the fleet for the small rebellion of those lowly miners.
If we just ignore them and seal off all the exits to the surface, they will destroy themselves.
Without external pressure, they would kill each other for food, for energy, for the animosity and hatred between them, for survival, and for the instigation of emotions.
Humans are best at destroying themselves.
At the same time, the man also began to feel fear.
Because he wasn't the first person to have this idea.
He's not smart; men know that.
From the very beginning, he was the one who supported the need to unleash a thunderous wrath, demanding that troops be deployed for brutal and bloody suppression and slaughter.
But some refused, while others proposed a gentler, more subtle way to weaken their will to resist.
This includes ignoring everything.
The resources underground are finite, as stated at the beginning.
The man had denounced this point, but the other party had explained it to the planetary governor countless times, and even found nobles who shared his views and visited their mansions.
But later...
"I've never seen them again," the man murmured.
He spoke in a very soft voice, so softly that it seemed he was afraid the person he was talking about would find him.
"Is that so?" the little girl said in a deep, resonant voice.
The man, however, did not sense anything amiss.
In his senses, the girl was still his daughter in his constantly changing, evolving, and distorted memories, and her voice was still that crisp sound with the distinctive characteristics of Iron Seven.
Salpedon retrieved the explosive pistol from the side, and in his other hand held an ancient Terra artifact from the Legion, once belonging to the family of Sherlock Holmes, the First Company Commander of the Ancient Terra Warlords.
Its appearance resembles a stopwatch, and Holmes described its function with the simple and direct code name "hypnosis".
This was a small gadget that almost every soldier in the Second Legion carried, but it had very little use and was not very reliable.
Before today, Salpedon's use of this technique had only been successful against an ordinary officer in an agricultural world. The information he provided had to be scrutinized and repeatedly verified, since humans are creatures prone to exaggeration and lying.
Therefore, many soldiers only treated it as a toy, because its function was not as quick as the Dawnbringers taking a bite of its brain.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Salpedon put away his little toy and pinched the nobleman's head with one hand.
Two seconds later, the man's head was smashed open in Salpedon's hands like a watermelon, blood splattering onto Salpedon's helmet and breastplate, leaving a bloody pattern like a wild beast's claw mark.
"You've never had a daughter."
As Salpedon spoke, he raised his head to look at the airdrop pods and Titan airdrop pods sliding down the horizon.
This once again confirmed the correctness of Paris's idea.
They sent another message to the Primarch on the ship, but still received no reply, though they were on their way there soon.
A group of Dawnbringers, clad in far heavier armor—with breastplates, shoulder armor, and limb armor far exceeding the thickness of their Mark II Expeditionary Power Armor—awaited them, carrying even heavier shields.
They received Hector's orders directly and conveyed the Primarch's approval, commands, and support.
This team, comprised of veteran soldiers from Dalian, clad in Mark III steel-type power armor and equipped with ample anti-psy energy gear, took command.
Salpedon kept his eyes on Paris, wanting to see Paris's truest expression.
But the prince in his memory showed no dissatisfaction at this moment. Instead, he had a friendly expression and seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief and was delighted by Hector's praise.
Salpedon no longer knows what he felt at the time.
But mostly I felt ashamed.
At the same time, he also made a mental note of himself: arrogance, prejudice, and emotions.
He often told himself that he should be careful with his emotions, because emotions, like words, can be deceptive.
When extremely angry, Salpedon would habitually take three to five breaths, enough time for him to calm down as much as possible from his rage, rather than making regrettable moves driven by his emotions.
Paris was, after all, a prince who had been educated by the king. Even if he was flawed, he still had enough principles and principles in certain areas.
Beep beep beep————
A brief communication tone was emitted from the microphone inside the helmet.
Salpedon dragged the man's broken body back to the room. The roadside was littered with the horrified corpses of his servants, whose necks had been snapped and heads smashed by him.
He walked through every corridor and every road, where photos of young children hung on both sides.
These children, both boys and girls, faced the camera with varying expressions: some smiled shyly, others smiled brightly, and still others cried uncontrollably and tried to avoid the camera.
Beneath each of these expressions are exquisite bone carvings inlaid with various minerals; some are musical instruments, while others are shaped like food.
Salpedon once said that because of his background, he had an unexpected sensitivity to these things.
So when he followed the man infiltrating here, the first thing he saw, when he was faced with those photos of young children, was that Salpedon had many, many hallucinations.
But Salpedon did not hurl insults; he had seen tortures many times more cruel than this.
He did not turn a blind eye to this because he had seen even more brutal punishments; on the contrary, at that moment, a more extreme, cold emotion overwhelmed Salpedon's anger.
Salpedon failed to grasp the fleeting word; even for an Astartes, such a flash of inspiration was too quick for him.
Therefore, Salpedon found a closer one for it.
That is————
Trial!