"...."
As Zhou Ye made his introductions, the Space Wolves fell into silence. But it was not only them. The Fallen Angel and the Lamenters standing nearby had gone equally still.
Every single one of them stared at the scene with wide eyes. The Lamenters especially were...
"The Emperor above. Sanguinius......"
"You are sons of Sanguinius?"
At that moment the Blood Angels Dreadnought Ancient stepped forward from the side, moving to stand beside the group of yellow-armored Lamenters.
"Ancient...could you be...?"
Hearing those words, the Lamenters froze. Then they noticed that while the Dreadnought before them was finished in black and gold, there was something unmistakable about it. A feeling of blood calling to blood. A kinship written deep in the Gene-seed itself.
"When Sanguinius fell, it happened right before my eyes. Right before my eyes.... There is not a day I can forgive myself for it. I can never call myself a Blood Angel again. Wuuu....."
As the Dreadnought Ancient spoke, his grief only deepened with every word. Zhou Ye was already weighing whether he ought to force a shutdown before the Black Rage could surface.
Then the Dreadnought actually wept.
"Wuuu...."
That grief, carried in Gene-seed and soul alike, was enough to split stone. It reached straight into the Lamenters standing before him. It was as though they could see it within themselves, as though in the depths of their own souls they could see the fall of that great figure who had always stood watch there.
A wave of sorrow erupted from somewhere deep inside them.
And then...
A Blood Angels Dreadnought Ancient and a group of Lamenters broke down and wept together, arms around one another. Watching this unfold, Zhou Ye suppressed the very strong urge to cover his own eyes.
"I remember that when I built him, I had Sanguinius in my mind, and shaped him from the Lamenters template. Stay calm. Stay calm. This is also part of the plan....."
This one was likely among the small number of Blood Angels who had followed Horus. The Gene-seed had then been loaded with a great deal of personal additions on top by Zhou Ye himself.
Or perhaps the subconscious had simply taken over, pressing the Lamenters template into shape without him fully realizing it. A Lamenters warrior who had personally witnessed the Warmaster beat Sanguinius to a pulp with his own hands.
Their sorrow was not weakness. It was the stubbornness of those who refuse to stop protecting the helpless, and...
"Ancient, no one blames you. If Ancient Bjorn could meet you, I think he would be glad."
The Space Wolves nearby experienced something of a processing failure themselves and completely missed what the Dreadnought beside them had just said, which was equally earth-shattering in its own right.
Their attention was entirely fixed on the Lamenters, who in that moment looked utterly lost, like a stray dog abandoned by the side of the road. It was here that Zhou Ye found himself thinking of something.
Back in his original world, certain veterans would come home from war carrying something that never quite left them. PTSD.
An Astartes developing that. Said out loud, it sounded a little strange. But considering the lives he had arranged for them through all his Gene-seed modifications, perhaps it was not so impossible after all.
So...
"Ai-chan, what is actually going on here?"
"Their Gene-seeds are authentic originals, but you added far too much to them. At the most fundamental level they have all been deeply shaped by you at a subconscious level. I think you need to reflect on what you have done."
"......."
In that single moment Zhou Ye felt a splitting headache coming on.
Because he had the distinct impression that his Chapter was forever teetering on the edge of dissolution. The Terminator Honor Guard standing at his back included Death Guard and Luna Wolves among their number, and he had not yet released them from his direct control.
"By the great Russ's order I watched that traitor. Why. Why did I not see it sooner. Why did I survive that massacre when I should not have. I...."
While Zhou Ye's headache deepened, the Space Wolves Dreadnought had begun telling stories to the pack of Wolf pups.
After all, Zhou Ye had only given the most cursory introduction. Once this Ancient filled in the full account...
The mood of the Wolf pups took a sharp turn for the worse, and the entire ruin erupted into chaos within moments.
"I need to find a way to hand this Dreadnought off. Otherwise the Space Wolves will slowly drive me into the ground."
Watching the chaos unfolding before him, Zhou Ye turned the problem over in his mind.
Scrapping the Dreadnought right in front of the Wolf pups did have a certain appeal to it. But he would need to read the situation first. If it came to it, just drag this Ancient over to the Wolf Chapter and leave him there for them to deal with.
He would play it by ear. Right now there were more important matters that needed his attention.
"Report the specifics of this world's situation to me shortly."
He fixed the Fallen Angel with a long, measuring look, then decided he could not be bothered to say more than that. If that unreliable Dark Angels mob ever came jumping into his face, he would knock together a time-freeze device the same way Trazyn would and collect every last one of them. Then he would hold them until the Lion came back and return the entire problem to the Dark Angels to sort out for themselves.
"Yes, my lord...."
"I will go and check on the sons of Sanguinius. Velt, compose yourself. There are countless people on this planet crying out in pain right now. Great Sanguinius would never abandon a single soul under the Emperor's dominion."
"Yes, Lord Gullest."
"My lord?"
Though still heavy with grief, the Lamenters warrior blinked in confusion.
What standing did this figure hold, that a ten-thousand-year Dreadnought would address him as lord? What were his origins?
"We shall not dishonor the name of Sanguinius. Now then, your equipment?"
Hearing that, the Blood Angels Dreadnought Ancient rose to his full height. He then got a proper look at the little yellow-armored figures before him, and came to a dead stop.
There was no polite way to describe it. The state of them was genuinely pitiful. Broken and tattered. Large sections of their armor had been reduced to fragments, held in place by what appeared to be adhesive compounds and something that might charitably be described as wire or scrap metal strips.
Chainswords in tatters, most of the teeth already gone. Boltguns, and if he was reading it correctly, it looked as though even the rifling had been worn completely smooth. Some pieces had clearly been shattered into several sections and then forcibly welded back together. Nobody could say when any of those things might decide to detonate. As for the Machine Spirits within them...
"Ai-chan, send down thirty sets of equipment. When exactly did you arrive here? The Governor never mentioned you to me."
"We are still in the middle of our Penitent Crusade. We were separated from our Chapter by a Warp storm. We followed an Administratum missionary who was passing through this region, and when we learned there had been a daemonic incursion here, we came down."
"Ah?"
"My lord, they escorted a PDF unit in a fighting withdrawal from one of the front lines. They lost a third of their number doing it, and have been resting here with me temporarily since."
"......"
After hearing those words, the Lamenters sergeant lowered his head.
"We could have saved more people than we did...."
Thud!!
Another supply canister came crashing down. Zhou Ye cracked it open and found inside a batch of fresh Mark VII Power Armor. Freshly manufactured Boltguns. And sufficient ammunition.
"Gulp..."
The Lamenters stared at the supplies with wide eyes and swallowed hard, before the familiar defeated look settled back over them and they went still again.
"We carry our sins. We have no right to...."
Thud!!
"Listen up, little ones. If I say take it, you take it. Stop sniveling like a bunch of girls."
The sergeant's words had not yet finished leaving his mouth before the Dreadnought's fist connected solidly with the back of his head.
--o--
TL notes : I couldn't sleep so I did this :D