bdsm-fiction Chapter 24 Persuading Peturabo
Chapter 24 Persuading Peturabo
The Thousand Sons are severely lacking in skilled soldiers.
The Thousand Sons Legion had only recently escaped the shadow of flesh mutation and had been reborn from the ashes a few years earlier.
The Thousand Sons who were sent to the Martian Mechanicus to learn mechanical knowledge and how to become technical sergeants have not yet returned.
Now the only option is to seek help from Peturabo, whose Iron Warriors have no shortage of technical sergeants.
While the number of technical sergeants in the Iron Warriors is far less than that in the Imperial Fist, it is still among the top in all legions.
Li Wei gritted his teeth, his face showing an expression of extreme struggle.
He had just touched Peturab's sore spot, and now turning to beg him for help is tantamount to walking into the line of fire.
But if we don't go, more than two million people will really die on this planet that is about to break apart.
He didn't want to be a savior, but with more than two million lives hanging by a thread, he couldn't give up when he had the resources.
If he were to truly give up, he would suspect that even without Tzeentch personally intervening, he would succumb to the guilt and fall into chaos.
Li Wei thought that one day, when he dared to issue an extermination order on his own, he would not lose his composure because of the weight of human lives.
"Apophis, work with Company Commander Matt, who is covering the evacuation, to bring all the Imperial citizens of the entire Hive City here."
After giving Apophis his instructions, Levi finally made up his mind to seek help from Peturabo.
Half an hour later, Li Wei found Peturabo on the loading platform of Warehouse No. 3.
He stood silently in front of a pile of fine gold ingots, watching the steel warriors load the cargo, his back taut like a fully drawn bow.
Seeing Li Wei walk to his side, Peturabo clenched his fist on the engineering hammer instantly.
"Didn't I tell you to get lost?" he said casually, his voice chillingly cold.
Li Wei took a deep breath, suppressing all his emotions, and got straight to the point:
"I need the technical sergeants from the Iron Warriors. That Golden Age colony ship can hold over two million people, and once the life support system is properly configured, we can evacuate everyone. But we don't have enough technical sergeants from Qianzi."
Peturabo stared directly at Levi, his face filled with undisguised mockery:
"So what if it's been debugged? It's just a pile of unpowered scrap metal. Are you expecting your psionicists to chant spells and lift that roughly 50 million tons of iron into the sky?"
"Yes." Li Wei nodded calmly. "We have the Mandala Spirit Gathering Array, which can gather the spiritual energy of two thousand Thousand Sons Warriors together, enough to push it into near-Earth orbit."
"You're fucking insane!"
Peturabo roared and slammed his hammer into the ground, creating a deep crater.
"Psionic propulsion for warships? Do you think the laws of physics are bullshit?! The thrust won't be enough, the ship will fall from mid-air, everyone on board will be smashed to pieces, and half the planet will be crushed!"
"Besides, didn't you say there's subspace contamination? Aren't you afraid of another outbreak?"
Li Wei looked at him with unwavering determination:
"I know the risks are extremely high, but it's better than doing nothing and watching more than two million people explode into pieces along with the planet. Let's try; at least there's still hope."
Peturabo stared intently at him, his chest heaving violently.
He wanted to kick this madman out, finish loading the goods immediately and leave, and let this psionicist who was reopening old wounds taste the bitterness of defeat.
But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a brother and sister in the fleeing crowd in the distance.
The ragged older sister held her younger brother tightly in her arms, as if afraid he would be snatched away by the fierce-looking refugees around her.
He thought of Kelly Fanny from Olympia, his sister who always protected him, and the steel-like defenses in his heart finally cracked.
He hated Li Wei, he hated Qian Zi, he hated all those who could easily possess everything, but he hated even more those who watched innocent people die.
A full minute passed before Peturabo spat viciously and roared into the communicator, "All members of the 7th Engineering Company! Drop what you're doing and get to the underground mines! Repair that damned ship!"
"Primarch? What about the resources?"
The hesitant voice of the engineering company commander came through the communicator.
"Repair the ship first!" Peturabo's voice was slightly hoarse. "If you can't fix all the systems within twenty hours, I'll weld you all to the warship's hull and make you fly with it!"
After saying that, he glared fiercely at Li Wei, his tone still incredibly awkward:
"I'm not helping you. I just don't want to see more than two million people die unjustly like my own children did. And if this gets messed up, you'll be the first person I kill."
Li Wei looked at him, feeling a pang of sadness in his heart.
He finally understood Peturabo's rage, and finally saw the burning heart hidden beneath the cold exterior of this Iron Lord.
A master of steel who always uses harshness as armor, yet hides his most vulnerable side tightly.
"Thank you," Li Wei said earnestly.
"Stop talking nonsense."
Peturabo turned his head away and continued to stare at the loading platform, but no one saw that his tense expression finally relaxed slightly.
For the next twelve hours, the entire underground cavern transformed into a bustling battlefield.
Countless civilians, dragging their luggage and carrying their children, boarded the ship in an orderly fashion, guided by the Thousand Warriors and the Iron Warriors.
Although Peturabo didn't say anything, he secretly sent half of the siege guard company to maintain order. They used engineering hammers and molten metal bombs to break open the collapsed mine tunnel and help the old people and children board the warship.
The steel warriors of the 7th Engineering Company demonstrated astonishing efficiency.
Like a group of sophisticated machines, they drilled into every corner of the warship, replacing damaged wiring, debugging life support systems, and repairing gravity stabilizers.
What would normally take three days to complete, they finished in just twelve hours.
What shocked Li Wei even more was that they actually had the spare capacity to divide their forces and use thermal cannons and heavy tunneling machines to carve out a hole tens of kilometers in diameter in the top of the underground cavity, so that the warship could rise into the sky intact.
"All done." The engineering company commander took off his power armor helmet, wiped the sweat from his face, and said to Li Wei, "The life support system can last for seventy-two hours, the docking compartment is repaired, and the gravity stabilizer is set to the lowest power. We've reinforced the edges of the excavated hole with alloy plates; it can withstand normal energy impacts."
Li Wei bowed deeply to the steel warrior covered in oil and sweat.
He then glanced at the data terminal on his wrist armor, before turning to instruct the Thousand Sons warriors beside him:
"In five hours, the planet will collapse. All Thousand Sons warriors, assemble immediately and prepare to deploy."
Two thousand warriors quickly lined up on the open ground at the bottom of the warship, forming a huge, complex circle according to the orientation of the Mandala Spirit Gathering Array.