The dim light squeaked weakly, illuminating the darkness. Staring at that lamp, Hades thought that aside from the Night Lords, the Death Guard must have the most thorough grasp on lights out for power conservation.
Overcast days are suitable for sleeping. Not long after Apothecary Leo left, Hades started feeling drowsy. Arguing with creatures like Trazyn that don't get tired was truly too mentally draining, so he decisively closed his eyes and started sleeping.
When he opened them again, he was startled by Mortarion silently sitting in the darkness.
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
Mortarion did not speak, still maintaining his silence.
?
Hades' heart lurched. Don't tell him something happened with the Death Guard again? That unpleasant memory of lying in the medical bay drifted up in him.
"What...happened?"
Hades asked tentatively, his heart in his throat.
Silent words, almost soundless, arose from behind the rebreather mask.
"You're still alive."
Hades froze for a bit. What does he mean I'm still alive? Of course he was still alive!
Hades blinked. Oh, at the end he unleashed the Null Field, and in the very end...he seemed to have used some power of the star gods too?
Then his memory went blank. The next thing was him getting picked up by the Eternal Collector.
Hm. Looking at it this way, when he opened the Null Field, the others were likely in some kind of half-coma state too. And the Necrons would not have been affected, leaving the air raid squad then in a very dangerous situation.
Hades' heart lurched again.
"How are the members of the air raid squad?"
Mortarion spoke slowly.
"They're alive."
Then the Primarch added, "I meant the Death Guard."
Hades naturally asked the next sentence.
"What about the Iron Warriors?"
Mortarion went silent.
The two sank into silence again.
Hades' mind was full of questions, but the most likely probability currently was that Mortarion and Perturabo had some sort of falling out, and Mortarion probably wouldn't be happy to see his warriors caring about soldiers from other Legions.
"I was just casually asking about the casualties..."
Hades tried probing indirectly.
The eyes under Mortarion's hood were unclear and inscrutable. He stared at Hades.
"So your hope is?"
Hades blinked.
"Although I'm a warrior of the Death Guard, if fellow warriors from other Legions fighting alongside me suffered major casualties, that would also be a display of my inability."
Mortarion looked away, and the Primarch sullenly said a sentence.
"Zero deaths."
Hades felt like something was off with the atmosphere, like the calm before a storm. Although it was likely that Mortarion and Perturabo didn't get along, Mortarion probably didn't have reason to directly discriminate against the entire Iron Warriors, right?
"You don't seem very happy to see the Iron Warriors have zero casualties?"
Hades tried probing.
But Mortarion suddenly said resentfully.
"Have you still not realized what happened?"
"Yes, yes, you might not know what happened after."
"Do I, do I care about the Iron Warriors' deaths? Does he care about the Death Guard's?!"
"After you lifted the aerial denial defenses on the ground, that bastard directly ordered a bombing of an entire region!"
"With Death Guards still in that region, with you a Death Guard commander also in that region!"
"Indiscriminate bombing across that whole area!"
"That bastard, he doesn't care about his sons, because he knew his sons would take shelter from the aerial assault."
"But he directly exposed the Death Guard in that region!"
A string of loud Barbarus curses spewed from Mortarion's mouth, the Primarch's speed so fast it was unbelievable. Hades had reason to believe Mortarion had spat out this curses countless times already.
From rotten scum who's less useful than a pile of body parts, to dead frogs in mud, Mortarion had basically spat out all of Barbarus' limited cursing vocabulary.
"And they say my tactics are too cruel? Too extreme?"
"So their so-called rational tactics are to bomb their allies?!"
Hades silently moved his gaze to the weakly flashing lamp.
Hey, look at this lamp. It really looks like a lamp.
Cough cough. No, Hades pulled his thoughts back to reality. No wonder Mortarion was being so abnormal, so it turns out the Death Guard were bombed on Perturabo's orders!
What?!
Hades couldn't hold back either this time. Although he knew what Perturabo was like, before that was all joking around. But now Perturabo truly ordered the betrayal and bombing of the Death Guard for the war!
Hades felt like he almost coughed up blood. This time it was his oversight, having forgotten that some of the Primarchs would pull this move.
Primarchs like this he could think of were Fulgrim, Lorgar. The next time the Death Guard cooperated with another Legion, he must ensure the Death Guard oversaw their own aerial denial and support for the main theatre.
But now, Hades looked at Mortarion still cursing up a storm, he still had to get the Legion Master to calm down—
Calm down his ass! Hades was the one bombed by Perturabo!
He was the one bombed!
If not for the Eternal Collector, Hades would have truly died there!
Although Hades knew he would die on some battlefield one day, perhaps one that makes it into the history books, or perhaps just a minor skirmish.
But not from being bombed by their allies!
Powerlessness mixed with anger and absurdity surged up in the dim lamp light, slapping Hades, like a taunt.
Hades took a deep breath.
"Mortarion?"
The Primarch's curses stopped. Mortarion looked at Hades, fury also in his eyes.
"I'll just ask one thing. Have you tried taking a swing at Perturabo?"
Mortarion was taken aback. In the Primarch's impression, Hades was always the one smiling and glossing things over (and was rated Most Even-Tempered of the Death Guard). Just earlier, Hades was still trying to ask about the Iron Warriors' casualties.
But hearing Hades' words now, Mortarion gave a cold chuckle. You see, Perturabo's actions were so intolerable that even Hades couldn't stand it.
"I took a swing."
Mortarion said proudly and approvingly.
"No one can harm the Death Guard without paying the price in blood."
Mortarion started telling Hades how he took a swing at Perturabo.
In truth, after Mortarion first took a swing at Pertarubo, he tried dragging Perturabo to the dueling cages, but Perturabo refused each time.
But no matter. Each time Perturabo refused like so, Mortarion would try initiating a little duel with Perturabo in the corridors of the Iron Blood, while also taking the chance to use his censers to blast those corridors into long-term unusable states with his corrosive gases.
The quality toxins lingered in the entire corridor. Aside from the Death Guards fitted with toxin rebreathers, sturdy enough Death Shrouds, those Iron Warriors could only collapse in coughing fits on the ground.
Perturabo looked at Mortarion furiously. Mortarion returned an equally cold and wrathful gaze.
"You're the worst 'brother' I've ever met."
"Just because you were born on some backwater agricultural planet, you recklessly and arrogantly trample the discipline of the Imperium, tossing your filthy gases everywhere."
"His Majesty on Terra never told me that bombing our allies was discipline of the Imperium."
Mortarion lifted his scythe and charged forth.
Hades listened to Mortarion recount his relentless pestering of Perturabo, and swallowed. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
According to Mortarion, he had successfully rendered three of the Iron Warriors' corridors unusable.
Imagining Perturabo looking at the corridors on his flagship filled with corrosive toxic gas, Hades wanted to laugh, but he felt that the cooperative path between the Death Guard and Iron Warriors had essentially reached a dead end.
Moreover, Mortarion and the Death Guard's reputation among the other Legions...If this got out...
Hades looked at Mortarion. He really wanted to say that maybe Mortarion didn't care about the Death Guard and his own image among the other Legions, but Hades, Hades still wanted to save some face!
Perturabo had terrible character, but that didn't mean he didn't have his own circles among the Primarchs. Perturabo got along well with Magnus.
This was social death!
Hades lamented—
But Mortarion was in the right!
What Hades didn't know was that Mortarion's relentless actions also made Perturabo realize that maybe he ordered the bombing of a rather important Death Guard.