The last warriors of the 10th and 11th Companies gathered in the war room of the Cursed Echoes.
For seven hours none of them moved, all remaining around the prophet and the wise man of war.
Occasionally other Talos warriors would speak up, adding their words to Talos' memories.
Finally, Talos slowly let out a sigh of relief.
"Then you wake up."
The Dreadnought made a grinding sound deep within its interior, similar to the sound of sliding gears in a tank.
Talos wonders if this equates to
For grunting, or cursing, or just clearing the noise when there is no throat to speak to.
"You did very well."
Talos almost flinched at the sudden statement.
"I see--"
Talos opened his mouth, just to say something, anything.
"You seem surprised. Did you think I would give birth?"
Talos was acutely aware that others were watching him.
"At best, I wanted to kill you, at worst, I wanted to wake you up, and either way, I didn't expect you to be angry."
Markarian was the only one in the room who was really standing still, and while the others were still there, they would every now and then
Changing positions, tilting his head, or talking softly between claws.
To others, Markarian seemed almost immortal in his silence, never breathing, never moving.
"No, the one I really should kill is that hateful Techpriest!"
he roared, while Thelyon chuckled across the room. It took the brothers some time to convince Markaryon not to go through the traumatic and painful resurrection ritual of annihilating Dietrian.
To Talos, Dietrian had been humiliated by the failure of his resurrection ritual—albeit in a subtle and unemotional way.
"but……"
Talos didn't know how to finish his sentence.
"You've managed to keep us alive for so long without a commander, Talos, and retrieving the Cursed Echo was a great decision. The only thing that surprises me is the Eldar showing up."
Markarian fell into a brief silence, as if recalling something.
"In my opinion, their trap is pointless and the only way to avoid it is to continue to exist on the edge, doing nothing and having no impact on the galaxy."
"I can't escape this trap. Fandrode is dead. I don't have such outstanding command skills."
"No, you have done far more than Vandrod, even if not on the battlefield... Don't be ashamed of fighting with your mind instead of your claws, you have sown the seeds of legend, and the night has fallen. Hundreds of worlds, some will remain in silence for months. Some will be lost to years of warp storms, and some will never be heard from again, but there is no doubt that the Imperium will find them snatched away by the punishment unleashed life."
Talos smiled and tried to divert the topic away from himself.
"You said the Empire would know what happened here? I'm not sure, but the Eldar have at least known it. They reacted so quickly. Their wizards must have foreseen the future and seen something in the wave of prophecies. , I want to fight against him, but my precognition ability is not as strong as the opponent’s, and it can always be one step ahead of me.”
After hearing this, the Dreadnaught moved for the first time, turning its waist and looking down at the gathered Night Lords.
"Does this bother you?"
Several people nodded and replied:
"Yes, Captain."
"I know what you are thinking now."
The Night Lords looked at their captain. In that heavy body, he was like a towering monument to a life dedicated to service.
"You don't want to die. The Eldar have driven us into the last battle. You are afraid of the call of the grave. You just want to escape, just want to live another day, and just want to save your life at all costs."
Blood-Eyed Lucofus hissed before speaking.
"You make us sound timid."
Markarian turned to the raptor, his armor's joints grinding.
"You have changed, captain of the 11th company."
"Time changes everything, Markarian."
The raptor's head jerked to the side, and the power armor's servo system let out a whine.
"We were the first people to climb the city walls during the siege of Terra. Before we became the Eyes of Weeping Blood, we were the Blades of the Eleventh Company. We are not cowards, Captain of the Tenth Company."
"You have forgotten the Legion's injunction that death is nothing compared to self-defense."
The raptor then let out a harsh hiss, the equivalent of a laugh.
"Having said that, death is still an outcome I would rather avoid, and we are trained to do so.
I have received this warning and do not intend to accept it again in my lifetime. "
Dauntless responded with a rumbling roar.
"If you're not taught twice, you don't learn! Stop complaining now,
Before we fear it's all over, we're going to face these alien scum. "
"It's great to have you back, Captain."
Selion said suddenly.
"Then stop giggling like a baby."
Fearless replied.
"Talos, what's your plan? It better be grand, brother, I don't want to die a third time in anything dishonorable."
Several legionnaires gathered together laughed coldly.
"This is no joke!"
Macharion growled.
"Company commander, we didn't take this as a joke."
After Makuchen finished speaking,
The prophet activated the tactical hologram.
Dense asteroids litter the space above the projection table, and at the center of the cluster a throbbing rune indicates the echo of the curse.
"We are safe now, in a small group of planets in the northwest of the Storm Star field."
Markarian made a sound like grinding his teeth again.
"Why are we in the Storm Star Territory? If we want to return to the Great Eye, we don't need to pass by here."
Lukovus gestured to the hologram, a symbol of gang contempt.
"We didn't understand either, but the prophet was very determined to change the route, so we plunged into the arms of those alien bitches, as if we were entering a brothel full of mutant freaks."
Cerion cleared his throat.
"Prophet, can you tell us at this time?"
Under the gaze of everyone, Talos hesitated for a moment and then said softly:
"There is a voice, a voice that appeared in the prevision. It is very familiar, but I can't remember who it is. He summoned me to the Storm Star Territory... I believe in prevision, and I also believe that there is a way out here. The Eldar can predict To where we are, that certainly won’t make it easy for us to get back to the Great Eye.”
"Ha, it's preview again."
Lukovus screamed, but was immediately interrupted by Markarian's roar.
"That's enough, shut up first!"
Then he turned to Talos.
"Thank you for your hard work, soul hunter."
"How many times do I have to drag you from your grave and tell you to stop calling me that?"
"What else did you see or hear besides this?"
Talos then entered another set of coordinates and the hologram shrank, zooming to reveal a planet itself, with many other flickering runes showing more surrounding worlds.
"This is the Nessian galaxy, very close to us. It was the voice that told me the name of this galaxy."
"Where is the territory of the empire?"
"Yes, strictly speaking, we are now in the hinterland of the empire. We may be discovered by the empire at any time, and then be surrounded and suppressed by heavy troops. The information we captured on the long-range communication channel shows that at least five lackey battle groups of the puppet emperor are in Neighboring Galaxy Activity."
As soon as these words came out, there was a sound of inhalation all around.
"This is going to be really exciting."
Cerion muttered.
"So you're going to let us plunge into the empire's belly and kill us?"
"Captain, this won't be easy, the enemy fleet is massing on the outskirts of the battlefield, they are preventing us from entering the system, for now they seem content to wait, but that's it... the noose tightens every time we try to run forward They all pushed us back, they knew we had no choice but to fight, there was no way we could go."
"not necessarily."
Markarian suddenly made a subtle sound.
"That person...since he called you here, it means we haven't reached a dead end yet."
Markarian said loudly:
"Leap, leave everything to the subspace."
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