The Bizarre Adventures of the Oil Man, but Starting with Warhammer 32K

Udo tapped the table. "Even if we ignore the missing exploration fleet, the sages gathered on Mars have over ten million Skitarii private soldiers at their disposal. They truly have their own army."

"They have other plans for the situation on Terra."

Kurland remembered Leon's previous judgment.

"That's right, but as long as we show our strength, I believe they will become our help again."

The relationship between Terra and Mars can be described as one of lips and teeth. Those Martians may be selfish, but as long as Terra can show that it has the ability to save the crisis, Udo believes that even the Forge General will become his ally.

After all, if Terra is destroyed, Mars will be the next to suffer.

How else can these oil men escape? Take their Mars with them and leave the solar system?

Convincing the Oil Man required actual force. After the Terran Crisis was resolved, Udo would never allow the Final Wall to remain. But before the Terran Crisis was resolved, Udo felt these Astartes could be a force to help him "convince" Mars.

"Chamber Master Kurland, you are the only one who can leave Terra and hold enough weight to negotiate with the Fabricator-General. You will travel to Mars on behalf of the Imperial Fists and the Imperial High Command to seek aid from the Fabricator-General. The Imperial blood cannot be the only thing shed on the front line against the xenos. The Mechanical Priests must also prove that they are still loyal to the Empire."

Kurland hesitated for a moment, feeling very uncomfortable with being used as a pawn. But his reason reminded him that this was indeed the most appropriate course of action at the moment, bar none.

He kind of missed the days when Li Ang was still around, when he only needed to think about how to better clench himself into a fist to crush the enemy, instead of sitting here trying to figure out the political intricacies that he might never understand in his lifetime.

He stood up. "I'm going to Mars."

"Very good. Admiral Lanson and his two battleships will cooperate with you. If possible, it would be best to bring the Phalanx as well."

Udo was satisfied with the realization of his idea: "Convince them, and join them in the attack on Battle Moon. I can convince the High Lords Council to approve my plan. You will receive far more assistance than an Astra Militarum regiment after the war on Battle Moon begins. We will hold your triumph ceremony on Terra after that, and discuss the next topic there."

The informal meeting that had dragged on for several days came to an end. Udo, who had previously taken the initiative to greet Kurland and prevented him from interacting with any other high lords besides himself, only escorted Kurland to the door.

Compared to Kurland, who had already reached an agreement, the Imperial Commander was clearly eager to manipulate the situation on Terra. Kurland walked out of Udo's office alone, only to find his Honor Guard waiting for him outside with anxious expressions.

The guards spotted Kurland coming out and rushed to him. The leading guard captain lowered his voice and said hurriedly: "Bad news from the Phalanx!"

"what?"

"Soul Drinker Chapter Master Danyatus has started a rebellion!"

Kurland's eyes widened, suspecting he had misheard. But the entire guard nodded solemnly, indicating that the captain's words were true.

"Daniates? How dare he!"

His blood froze, then boiled. The rage that surged in his heart made Kurland throw off his honor guard. He wanted to return to the Phalanx immediately and confront Danyatus about all this.

But the captain stopped him again and explained: "The rebellion has been quelled now."

"There are eight hundred Soul Drinkers in total. Is it possible that their rebellion can be resolved so quickly?"

"According to the news sent back by the Phalanx, only half of the Soul Drinkers participated in the rebellion. Coupled with the preparations made by Sage Leon in advance, the impact of this rebellion was minimized."

Kurland breathed a sigh of relief.

At this critical moment when the final wall was under scrutiny, the rebellion scandal exposed their situation even worse. Fortunately, the matter was resolved quickly and became only a small secret within their group.

"Leon..."

He muttered to himself, this Mechanical Priest whose mere name made him feel at ease: "We still need to return to the Phalanx as soon as possible to deal with the Soul Drinkers' internal affairs and decide on our next plan."

The Honor Guard nodded in agreement, escorting Kurland back to the Thunderhawk gunship. From there, they would reach the small transport ship in orbit and return to the Phalanx.

When they arrived at Thunderhawk, they found that the chapter servants who had stayed there were arguing with another group.

"Who dares to inspect an Imperial Fists transport?"

Kurland asked a chapter servant.

"My Lord, it was the servants of the Inquisition. They stopped us and said an Inquisitor would be arriving soon."

Sure enough, it was the omnipresent Imperial Special Forces.

Kurland pursed his lips, wondering if the Inquisition's visit was due to the mutiny that broke out on the Phalanx. However, a silver-haired figure quickly disproved his suspicions.

Frati Lena walked up to Kurland. The old acquaintance, the Inquisitor, said sternly, "I need to go with you to the Phalanx."

"why?"

Kurland asked back.

"I need to speak to the leader of the Final Wall about what's happening on Mars."

"Is there anything we can't say to each other face to face?"

All eyes turned to Kurland. Facing Kurland's serious expression, Frati Lena's expression turned awkward.

"It's another leader... I mean, Leon."

PS1: Any large-scale Mechanicus military force is essentially the private armed forces of its commander, such as a Magus, Archmagus or Vice-Forge Master, but is subject to a certain degree of control by the Empire and the Forge General (the Forge General himself is also subject to the control of the Empire)

This system meant that it was difficult for each Mechanicus army to become a large standing army on the scale of the Imperial Guard. However, the nature of private armed forces would force the Magi to spare no effort in improving the combat effectiveness of their Skitarii, making them their own unique elite forces.

Chapter 166: New News from the Inquisition and Maxim's "Old Acquaintance"

Kurland made a face that said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" and returned to the Phalanx with the Inquisitor.

Without any welcoming ceremony, Frady Lena followed Kurland into the interior of the Phalanx. They gestured to the Feylucat standing at the door of the foundry, and after a while, Leon and Dorn emerged from the foundry together.

The judge expressed her respect for Fearless before turning to Leon: "It seems you're doing quite well on the Phalanx."

"uh-huh."

Li Ang remained noncommittal: "I'm more concerned about why you came back to see me."

"I need some space to discuss this alone."

Dorne and Kurland, who still needed to meet with other Chapter Masters regarding the Soul Drinker Rebellion, left first. Reyna looked up into the foundry area, but Leon blocked the door firmly.

"Won't you invite me inside to sit and chat?"

Leon didn't intend to show him the secret weapon he and Dorn were tinkering with: "It's fine for us to chat here."

"Then perhaps you can tell me why there are traces of battle on the Phalanx?"

"That's easy. We previously conducted a counter-gang drill on the Phalanx."

Reina glared at Leon, very dissatisfied with his lack of cooperation. However, her urgent need for discussion still made her lose the confrontation.

"I'm here to tell you about the situation on Mars. As the provider of the initial clues, the Inquisition needs your professional opinion."

The clues planted at the end of Covenant Port have borne fruit. The all-pervasive Inquisition followed the clues of intercepting orc teleportation technology on Mars and conducted an in-depth investigation into the movements of Mars.

The anomalies discovered during the investigation are now summarized in Reina's hands for her to ask Leon questions.

"Then I'd be extremely honored."

"very good."

Li Ang's cooperation in this regard soothed the Inquisitor's previous dissatisfaction. She flipped through the documents at hand and pointed to one of them:

"Orc corpses are constantly being brought in from Mars, and the number has exceeded 100,000. What do you think they are doing?"

"I wouldn't say this is the Orks' teleportation, but at least they must be studying Ork technology. The Mechanicus' research is always metaphysical. If they can't understand the principles of a certain alien technology, they will capture the aliens who can use it and try to solve the problem."

"It seems that the sage of Huangquan No. 8 is very knowledgeable about this aspect?"

"I don't understand as much as Mars, but at least Acheron VIII hasn't produced so many Black Mechanicus traitors."

"I hope you have the courage to say this in front of those Martians, but speaking of the Dark Mechanicus..."

Reina pulled out a photo and handed it to Leon.

"How much do you know about this great sage?"

Li Ang glanced at the photo: "Augustus?"

He certainly remembered the Great Sage who served as the Forge Supervisor on Maximus. After the Deputy Forge Supervisor failed, he left Maximus with the remaining members of the Mechanicus without any regrets.

Leon didn't know much about him, but his ability to capture Maxim was inseparable from the great sage's indifference to Maxim.

"All I know is that he's very eager to go back to Mars. What's going on there?"

"In fact, it was his research that required the use of so many orc corpses. Combined with your previous answer, we now have reason to believe that Mars' research on orc technology was led by him—and it was done very shadily."

"What is your evidence?"

"Every Inquisitorial agent who attempted to access his research project was killed. Not one survived."

This meant that the Inquisition hadn't gathered any intelligence about the experiment. Leon wouldn't question the Inquisition's expertise in this area; the only explanation was that Mars had invested heavily in counterintelligence measures due to its emphasis on the project.

But Li Ang still felt something was wrong.

"Strange, is Mars' counterintelligence technology that advanced...?"

The Forge World has a natural advantage in anti-infiltration due to its extensive use of servitors and identity recognition systems, but this is Warhammer after all.

The lack of information in the underlying code can even allow genestealers, who could have been identified through genetic means, to lurk in hive worlds including Mars.

Compared to those cunning ones, the Inquisition's methods should theoretically be stronger, not weaker. The fact that they were able to eliminate all the agents only meant that Mars employed methods beyond the norm.

"What are you going to do next?"

Leon asked, knowing that the Tribunal would never let it go.

"We need your assistance. Final Wall is about to head to Mars for assistance. Due to your identities, you will safely reach the surface and negotiate with Cast General Kubik. If you can delay the negotiations a little longer, a new batch of specialized agents will have the opportunity to infiltrate the depths of Mars and obtain the secrets of this experiment."

"You know we're going to Mars to seek help. If this were to be exposed, you don't think we'd be able to get any reinforcements, do you?"

"Do you think Mars will sincerely help you?"

Frady Lena asked back, "If that's the case, why did you transfer the troops from Maxim? Are you here to visit Terra?"

Li Ang was too embarrassed to say that he planned to take some things from Mars without having to return them, so he could only smack his lips regretfully.

"Besides the Inquisition, how many people know about Maxim?"

Leon's reliance on transporting people from Maxim, which has no spaceport, is the civilian ships that Reina had previously requisitioned as an inquisitor. This matter is indeed impossible to conceal from the Inquisition.

"The Orks' Waaaagh energy has blocked astropathic communications. No one except the Inquisition is currently aware of your movements. As long as you don't attack the Empire, I can guarantee that any action you take will be sufficiently sudden."

The Mechanicus, which is on the side of the Double-Headed Eagle, is obviously not considered part of the "big family" of the Empire at this moment.

"Then it seems that this plan is somewhat feasible."

Li Ang neither confirmed nor denied it. "As long as you're quick and decisive, I'll act accordingly."

Three million Astra Militarum and one Titan Legion were sufficient to raid some of the weaker Secondary Forge Worlds. However, Mars was the birthplace of the Mechanicus, and its strength could no longer be categorized by Forge World ratings.

It would be a pipe dream to fight the Martian Skitarii head-on with this amount of force on the surface of Mars. But being unable to defeat them and having no troops at hand are two different things.

If Mars is easy to talk to, then these troops can of course be kept for future use; if Mars turns against him, then this force will be enough for him to launch a surprise attack, seize the opportunity and run away.

"So we have a deal?"

Reina confirmed.

"Probably, but I still need to discuss it with other people."

Leon called two Astartes and asked them to "invite" the Inquisitor to the reception room to have a good rest, while he rushed to the place where several chapter leaders were meeting.

Several chapter leaders who were deciding the final fate of the High Wall accepted Leon, and Leon found that their discussions went quite smoothly.

"The High Lords' Council is questioning the Legion more than the Last Wall. We don't need to disband the Last Wall. We only need to retain the name of the Chapter and then form a Legion in reality."

The person who came up with the idea was Isaga, who had a thorough understanding of the High Lord's ideas, but his proposed method was opposed by Thorn, who wanted to disband the Fist of Exemplars.

"They will try every possible way to split this 'fact'. If they later issue different orders to different chapters in the name of the High Lord, how will we respond? Without the name, we will actually be disbanded."

"We have no choice. If we don't retain the Chapter's name, we could easily be investigated by those uneasy High Lords, who would discover that the Soul Drinkers and some of the Fists of the Paragon were involved in the Heresy. If they say, 'Ah, this is just like the Heresy!', Chapter Master Thorn, how should we respond?"

It was difficult for Thorne to accept that his determination to defend Terra was questioned by the High Lords, but he had to admit that what Isaga said was true.

To conceal this rebellion, the Fists of the Paragon cannot be disbanded, and the Soul Drinkers, who had previously appeared in Covenant Harbor, must continue to exist.

In this battle to defend Terra, the Seventh Legion also has a little secret that is no less than that of the Dark Angels.

However, this was a net benefit for Leon. With the support of Dorn the Dreadnought, the Chapter Masters decided that the Soul Drinkers, which must continue to exist, would be led by Armidale.

Armidale will select those repentant and reliable Soul Drinkers from the surrendered Soul Drinkers and incorporate them into the Second Legion. Kurland has already planned to form a new chapter with these veterans as the leaders after this battle.

The original Soul Drinkers would "disappear" into the Warp after this battle, and after being declared extinct, the Imperial Fists would step in and erase all records of their existence.

But these soul drinkers will actually be incorporated into the battle group headed by Amidel and become Leon's new helper.

Kurland felt guilty for letting these veterans help carry the dark secret of the Imperial Fist, but he didn't know that Leon was laughing behind his back.

A little secret can deliver the base of the Second Legion to him, and it is still a little secret of the legion to support people.

Maybe he can find another war group with little secrets to take advantage of later?