Chapter 167: Heydrich: Only the Coolest Dreadnought Can Be Worthy of Dante's Sacrifice (Patreon)

Anyway, any gene-seed Heydrich has laid hands on can't possibly turn to Chaos. The blessings they carry are already at their limit.

If any of the other four gods tried to corrupt it, it would simply blow up. The Emperor was the exception, of course. He's the thing the Imperium has worshipped for ten thousand years, after all, so when Heydrich was rewriting everyone's gene-seed, he spared that one line.

But Heydrich had blocked the Emperor's blessing as well. He had no wish to see a mess like that in his own home.

Still, these Space Marine warriors genuinely needed the Emperor's power, so Heydrich didn't seal the road off completely. Put simply, he left the Emperor a back door, and the Blood Angels got one more for Sanguinius.

You have to understand that the Imperium has only two statutory holidays. On those days, even the harshest Planetary Governor gives the whole planet several days off.

They are the Emperor's Ascension Day and Sanguinius's Ascension Day, just like in Heydrich's original world.

Back when the Dragon Boat Festival, Qingming and the Mid-Autumn Festival weren't public holidays, they felt more and more faded. Only after they became statutory holidays did they come back into people's lives.

It was much the same here. Plenty of people might not know who Sanguinius was, but since it came with a day off, surely a good many had prayed to him over these ten thousand years.

That made Sanguinius's present state the strangest of any Primarch. In theory, for instance, the most powerful Primarch in 40K was the Raven Lord, Corax.

But Sanguinius was no worse off than him, and if anything he was stronger. Like the Emperor, he came with a certain air of mysticism.

As for Dante, though Sanguinius had manifested, Dante himself was quite possibly a hidden Perpetual.

Either way, clocking out was out of the question. The great GW would never let these named, front-line Space Marine die, at least.

Before long, Heydrich finished improving the gene-seed of roughly several hundred subjects, and he had used Blood Knights for it.

If even the Blood Knights' gene-seed could be fixed, the Chapters with less severe mutations would have even fewer problems.

"It's done already?"

Dante, who had watched the whole casting from start to finish, stood there utterly blank. So did his First Company Captain Karlaen, Mephiston, the Blood Angels' Chief Apothecary, and numerous Chapter commanders.

All they had noticed was a golden light flickering in Heydrich's eyes and a feeling that made their hearts palpitate. Then there was no "then." It was simply over.

Their Ninth Legion's problem had left even the Emperor helpless, though that was only because their gene-seed trouble was so severe.

Of course, none of them knew that the Emperor was a total scrub. The one who had really been in charge of their Space Marine technology was the Lady Astartes, whom the Emperor and Erda, that pair of scoundrels, had driven to her death.

When the Lady Astartes took her own life, any chance of ever solving these genetic defects died with her. Basically, you shouldn't hold any expectations of the Emperor.

"It worked. Go ahead and implant the test subjects. Then see whether you can trigger the Red Thirst and the Black Rage on purpose. Oh, and… Loken, stand in front of the recruits the instant they wake up and see what happens."

"Huh?"

After hearing Heydrich, the whole group went blank again. Then they looked at Loken, who stood beside Heydrich in his Celestial armor.

Back in the day, Loken had been a clerical drudge in the Luna Wolves.

Here with Heydrich he was a clerical drudge too. Powerful warriors were a dime a dozen, but clerical drudges were few, especially good ones like him.

So whenever Heydrich was away, he had Loken handle diplomatic affairs with the other Chapters. The moment people laid eyes on a ten-thousand-year-old geezer, they went completely blank.

Heydrich couldn't figure it out either. Loken didn't have "I am a ten-thousand-year-old geezer" written on his forehead, yet those people always pinned down his identity right away.

Heydrich had a ten-thousand-year-old-geezer persona of his own, of course. For one thing, his strength more than qualified him for it. After all, he had single-handedly banished a Nurgle Daemon Prince and a Khorne Bloodthirster at the same time.

The other reason was a few little secrets that made people tremble. All he could say was that the older you get, the scarier your secrets become.

Compared with that, though, Loken carried another identity: the last of the Luna Wolves.

Horus's gene-seed was actually fairly stable. It had a side effect, but the side effect only made you look like Horus. So when this batch of freshly converted recruits woke up and the first thing they saw was someone who looked like Horus…

If that caused no problems, then there were basically no problems at all. As for the Red Thirst, the group could experiment with that at their own pace.

"Isn't this a bit low?"

Dante felt that making Loken, that ten-thousand-year-old veteran, cosplay as Horus was a bit disrespectful.

There was no doubting Loken's identity. The Blood Angels kept complete records and knew he was the Son of Horus who had followed the Emperor in the Boarding Action on the Vengeful Spirit. Who would have guessed that he'd stayed on the Vengeful Spirit without being corrupted or killed?

What they didn't know was that Heydrich admired Trazyn the Infinite even more. To this day he couldn't work out how that fellow had recovered the gene-seed right under the noses of Abaddon the Despoiler and Erebus, and kept it uncontaminated at that.

The Path of Remembrance had been unlocked rather late, after all, and the Path of Destruction alone couldn't purify Warp corruption. It could only destroy it.

"Low? Let me tell you, back when Goldie took human form in the Middle East…"

"My Lord, we understand! Please, say no more!!!"

The moment Heydrich started, the Blood Angels were scared out of their wits.

Dante all but threw himself at Heydrich's legs to beg him to stop. This man's secrets were truly terrifying.

"Tsk, fine."

Heydrich clicked his tongue in disappointment. He had wanted to tell them about the Emperor being sold for thirty pieces of silver.

GW had never acknowledged that story, of course, mainly because it touched on religion. GW was a British company and had to show some respect for religion, but Heydrich wasn't bound by that and could spout whatever garbage he pleased.

Still, the Blood Angels clearly couldn't stomach even a little joke about the Emperor.

"Prepare to implant the first batch of test subjects. And you don't need that wretched blood casket of yours anymore, because I've solved your gene-seed problems. If you think the Black Rage and the Red Thirst are what make a Blood Angel, then forget I said anything. Though if you actually do that, Sanguinius will probably be furious with you if he ever comes back to life."

Heydrich said nothing more on the matter. But after hearing him, quite a few of the Blood Angels turned green, because his words had hit exactly what they feared most.

Earlier, Loken's one remark, asking why they had turned back into what they were before Sanguinius returned, had already landed on them like a devastating critical hit.

At least nobody was openly saying anything like "without the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, you're not a Blood Angel" anymore, but Heydrich couldn't help reminding them anyway.

The main reason was that this lot had a track record. Well, you couldn't quite call it a record. When Guilliman sent them Primaris, they hemmed and hawed, and then when they saw the Primaris suffered the Black Rage and the Red Thirst too, they took them in like treasures.

Seth did, at least. As for the Blood Angels' technicians…

The good news was that what Guilliman sent weren't red Ultramarines. The bad news was that the Primaris couldn't cure either curse.

Sure enough, after Heydrich's words, the whole group fell silent.

Heydrich opened a tavern door and left. He had plenty to do.

Once this batch of gene-seed had been implanted and showed no major problems, Heydrich would deal with the genetic defects of the Blood Angels still alive.

That kind of work took time, and he couldn't stay on Baal forever. The follow-up supplies would arrive soon, and every Blood Angels successor Chapter that came to Baal's aid would get a share.

Heydrich wouldn't let them go home empty-handed, but that didn't need his personal attention.

*

"How did you two brothers get on? The door on Macragge's Honour has vanished again. It's gone back into the Warp."

Heydrich had found the Lion drinking alone in the tavern, and he walked over to his side.

"Sir, is there anything I can get for you?"

Just then a voice rang out that sounded extremely punchable. The Lion's eye twitched.

Who knew what kind of voice this thing was using, but it sounded so smackable.

"Shush!!!"

Heydrich ordered it to be quiet. His tavern was actually pretty empty.

Most of its patrons were people passing through in a hurry, using the tavern as a waypoint for various necessary business.

As for true Masked Fools, there were only the Harlequin, and they had their own tasks.

The Path of Elation just didn't fit this universe well, and very few could walk it.

So, looking at the empty tavern, Heydrich had made a bartender, the only permanent resident there.

Being a thing of Elation, it came out a bit abstract.

Its name was Shush.

It was a chatterbox, but its tone was so punchable that the occasional patrons who dropped by for a drink all wanted to shut it up. That included its creator, Heydrich, who sometimes regretted making such a thing.

"This is an Abominable Intelligence, isn't it? It's nothing like the Dark Angels' ones."

"In terms of common-sense rationality…"

"Shush!!!"

Watching the bartender, the Lion sighed. He couldn't be bothered anymore to wonder whether the thing was blasphemous.

What weighed on him more was that his last time with Guilliman had been short.

Now that he finally had the chance to talk the situation over properly, the Lion's face had gone dark.

"This universe is a cesspit, true. But look on the bright side: at least humanity still has the Emperor. The xenos are the ones with real despair."

"Er…"

Hearing Heydrich, the Lion was left speechless. What was he doing, sympathizing with xenos? From anyone else, the Lion might have wondered whether they were truly resolute.

But since it was Heydrich, the Lion chose to let him think it over. He mainly feared Heydrich might turn to the Emperor and start another little story about the Emperor and some xeno, the kind that makes you explode just hearing it.

What the Lion didn't know was that Heydrich really did know quite a few.

"You take the road one step at a time and eat one bite at a time. Though I do think it might be easier to wipe out the Imperium and rebuild it from scratch. But just thinking about how to destroy the Imperium makes me feel powerless. Sigh…"

Saying that, Heydrich poured himself a drink. The Imperium was so vast that even he didn't know how to destroy it.

In the Warhammer setting, a great empire wasn't actually suitable. Small polities, each the size of a sector, fit better.

It had been like that in humanity's Golden Age. Back then, they were pocket empires, or small empires, and every one of them was quite capable in a fight.

Humanity had basically split the galaxy with the Eldar empire, and there hadn't been much trouble.

*

Meanwhile, on the Baal homeworld, life had to go on after Heydrich's departure. With the Netherworld war now over, the Blood Angels had suffered considerable losses, but their main force had survived intact.

This time they didn't need Primaris reinforcements from Guilliman, so the Genestealers on Baal were having a rotten time.

With help from Jimmy, Heydrich's unit with a bonus against Tyranids, every hidden Genestealer was dug out.

That left Dante free, or rather, too impatient to wait any longer.

"Get me into the Primaris surgery right now. Karlaen, if I don't make it, you're the Blood Angels' Chapter Lord."

Dante spoke excitedly to the Blood Angels gathered in front of him.

He was no stuffy traditionalist, and he accepted the Primaris readily. More than the so-called Primaris, though, what he wanted was to clock out.

"Isn't that too dangerous for our Chapter Lord?"

Karlaen looked at Dante, then at the group of bio-priests Heydrich had sent over, every one of them exhausted and looking like death warmed over, and he wasn't sure.

Their exhaustion was real, but so was their experience.

Ezekiel, for example, had once made the Dark Angels' Apothecaries perform caesarean sections on mortals, and that fellow's hands were incredibly skilled. He had obviously cut up so much of his brothers' gene-seed that it came to him as second nature.

These bio-priests had practiced plenty on the Ultramarines too. With the protection of Abundance's Ambrosial Arbor and Eternal Spirit Tree, nobody would die, so they could carve away freely.

What they faced was Guilliman's seemingly bottomless basket of blue grandsons. After learning the success rate of Heydrich's surgery, Guilliman had waved a hand and ordered everyone Primaris.

So when they heard Karlaen, they all rolled their dead-fish eyes and didn't even bother to explain.

In their operating room now sat a branch of the Ambrosial Arbor, enough to keep their wretched lives hanging on.

"The Blood Angels need to make a statement now, and you've seen it yourself. Our combat efficiency can't compare with the Celestial Empire's, so we must have the Primaris."

Dante's face was the picture of righteous resolve, as if he couldn't wait to sacrifice himself.

"Chapter Lord!!!"

Watching Dante set an example with his own life, Karlaen's eyes filled with tears. Then he waved a hand, and something enormous was wheeled in.

"…"

Even Dante's eye twitched at the sight.

It was a Dreadnought, and not just any Dreadnought: a Saturnine Dreadnought, a type the Blood Angels didn't have a single one of to this day.

Then Karlaen produced a recording, and Heydrich's voice came out of it.

"As the longest-serving Space Marine bar none, his Dreadnought naturally has to be the coolest and most overpowered one. So this Saturnine Dreadnought is yours. It's the Rolls-Royce of Dreadnoughts!!!"

"…"

In that instant, Dante's old face fell, and his hanging heart finally died.

Right then, the priest of Heydrich's beside him gave him a dose of anesthetic.

Dante passed out and was wheeled into the operating room. As a Space Marine, Dante was fairly hardy, and once the anesthetic put him under, they could operate right away.

As for what kind of anesthetic could take down Dante, Heydrich would only say that, never mind a mere Dante, his anesthetic could knock out a Primarch!!!

So the group watched Dante being wheeled in with worry, Karlaen and Seth among them. But just then, another Man of Stone walked over.

"This is the list of supplies my lord has prepared for you. It includes fifty thousand sets of Mark X power armor and three thousand Indomitus Terminators in total, along with a large number of Ironclad Dreadnoughts. Please come and receive them. Incidentally, Mk X is Primaris power armor, so you can only use it after completing the Primaris surgery. There are also even larger stocks of ammunition, boltguns, chainswords and other consumables. Thunderhawks, Rhino transports…"

"Gulp…"

Hearing the Man of Stone, the Blood Angels swallowed hard.

Because of their falling-out with the Mechanicus, and because Baal truly was poor, the Blood Angels had always been poor in the most epic fashion.

The parent Chapter was somewhat better off. Their successor Chapters had it far worse.

"Prepare a warehouse for us, and we'll start the handover. You can work out the exact distribution among yourselves. We won't interfere."

"Here, here, right here!!!"

The moment they heard the Man of Stone, the group sprang into action.

In the blink of an eye, the front of the operating room was deserted. Clearly nobody cared about Dante anymore.

They had a Saturnine Dreadnought, after all. Whatever happened to Dante, happened.

Besides, this fortune was simply too staggering. It was enough to equip an entire Legion.

The Blood Angels had never received such a vast amount of materiel since Sanguinius fell.

For the successor Chapters especially, it was an enormous windfall. Each one could receive at least several dozen sets of Terminator power armor.

Even the Blood Angels' parent Chapter had only a few more Terminators than that.