"Cough… M-my lord, is it not an insult to Your Grace for a wounded mere mortal to stand in your presence?" Zack asked, leaning against a tree.
His Arbites power armor had spared him much suffering, but a war on such a scale was simply beyond its standard capabilities.
Aside from his condition, there was something else about Zack.
Every Space Marine present looked at him differently.
Unlike the contempt they had shown before, the other Space Marines now regarded the human with a measure of respect.
A difficult thing to earn from traitors to the Imperium—especially when you weren't another Astartes, but a mere mortal.
"Zack, you should avoid being so relaxed in my presence," the Astartes reminded him, briefly turning his attention toward the resting figure.
The commander of the auxiliary army froze for a moment under the invisible pressure emanating from his master before frantically nodding.
It was obvious that he remembered his place in the hierarchy.
Atreus nodded, satisfied by how effective his warning had been at correcting his subordinate's lax behavior.
"Now that you're all here, I want a complete briefing on the situation. Tech-Priest Ykarios, can you begin with the first report?"
At the mention of her name by the leader of the Space Marines, the Tech-Priest left behind by Magos Morlock stepped forward.
She did not seem intimidated by Atreus's new stature following his evolution through Trust.
If anything, she appeared to be observing the Space Marine with a certain kind of… desire.
It didn't take a genius to guess what a member of the Dark Mechanicum intended toward such an anomaly.
"My lord, my brothers and sisters have used our sacred machines to survey the entire continent. Naturally, that includes the underground," she said, placing particular emphasis on the last words.
She even cast a brief glance toward Zack.
The gesture irritated the mortal commander, but he wasn't foolish either.
Zack had no intention of starting a verbal battle he couldn't win.
There was little point in arguing with someone who had offered part of their body to the Machine Gods.
"Excellent. I now want you to assist Zack in erasing every trace of civilization from this continent," Atreus ordered seriously.
The Astartes had just ordered a genocide.
Was it excessive?
Perhaps.
After all, Atreus possessed the power to "purify" the natives who had fallen under the influence of the Immaterium.
So why go this far?
"I can no longer sense the Warp since the demons and the natives were defeated, but that doesn't mean I should lower my guard," he thought, focusing his Trust to expand his field of perception.
Atreus could no longer feel the Warp's presence nearby.
However, he was not yet experienced enough with his newfound power to inspect the entire planet through sheer force of will.
He simply did not possess enough Trust.
The Iron Warrior was still far from being able to wield his will like the Emperor himself and become a beacon within the Immaterium for his own empire.
Under such circumstances, Atreus had no choice but to resort to the simplest solution for dealing with heretics in Warhammer 40,000.
Simple, uncompromising genocide.
To carry out that task properly, he needed an expert on the Immaterium.
The Dark Mechanicum fit that role perfectly.
After all, they had betrayed the Emperor to cast aside the restrictions that prevented them from better understanding the greatness of the Omnissiah.
Among those restrictions were experiments involving the Immaterium.
"I also intend to forbid these fanatics from continuing their Warp experiments within my star system," he thought, recalling the daemon engines that other warbands acquired from the Dark Mechanicum.
He couldn't stop them from studying the Warp.
The forge world of Tartaros was not subordinate to him, but Atreus refused to let their madness eventually spread into his territory.
As for the morally questionable nature of his order concerning the natives…
The Space Marines had already erased countless xenos civilizations from history during the Great Crusade.
There had even been cases where entire species were completely censored from the Imperial archives.
The Emperor had judged that simply knowing of those races—or the methods used to exterminate them—was too dangerous to preserve.
One of the most famous examples was the Rangdan.
That species proved so formidable that the First Legion had to call upon other Legions, as well as the Dragon hidden beneath the surface of Mars itself.
A god of the material universe.
The Void Dragon.
A C'tan.
(Image)
"Damn… my mind keeps wandering," he thought, forcing his attention back to the conversation.
The Tech-Priest had remained where she stood after receiving her orders. It was obvious she wished to speak about something else.
The Space Marine gestured for her to continue.
"My lord, I understand that you do not wish for Chaos worshippers on your world. However, your servant promised them to me," she said through a voice distorted by her vox communicator.
It was clear that her emotional simulator was nowhere near as advanced as that of her mentor, Magos Morlock.
Atreus was somewhat surprised by this revelation.
His servant had decided how to divide the spoils without consulting him beforehand or considering the consequences of such a decision.
The warband leader shifted his gaze away from the silver-haired woman and fixed it upon the wounded mortal commander.
That alone was enough to make Zack hurriedly explain himself.
"My lord! I never expected us to fight a war on such a scale! Nor did I expect we'd encounter such abominations. Besides, should I remind you that the spoils of this world were never truly a priority for either you or me, since everything ends up being spent for the benefit of the warband anyway?" he blurted out.
The commander was careful to emphasize that the spoils of their campaigns held no real value to Atreus.
After all, everything was indeed spent on Atreus's world.
He always benefited in the end.
"Hm… he's not wrong. Everything on Limnos III belongs to me. It doesn't matter if he gives slaves to the Dark Mechanicum; as long as they remain within this star system, they'll end up working for me indirectly," the Space Marine concluded.
As for the possibility that they would simply be shipped off as slaves to the forge world of Tartaros?
To the Space Marine, that was no different from killing them.
He lost nothing either way.
"You may have as many slaves as you wish, Tech-Priest, but I will tolerate no daemonic incursions within my star system. Is that understood?" he said, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Ykarios hurriedly nodded.
"Good. We can move on. Barnaby… have we suffered any casualties among our brothers?" he asked, looking toward his most dependable subordinate aside from Anthony.
The veteran shook his head.
"Negative, but we've expended a great deal of ammunition and lost several valuable vehicles. At this rate, our next recruits will struggle during future training exercises and upcoming campaigns," the squad leader reported.
His assessment was confirmed by Techmarine Filon, who nodded toward Atreus.
"I see. We'll resolve that problem quickly with Magos Morlock. Other than that… Olivia."
At the sound of her name, the young girl jumped slightly before answering.
"Y-yes, my god… um, I mean my lord… no, I…" she stammered, searching for the proper way to address him.
Her hesitation also seemed to pique the curiosity of everyone present at the post-war meeting.
How were they supposed to address Atreus now?
"Strange… watching her fluster like this actually improves my mood," he thought as a faint smile appeared across his weathered face.
At last, the Space Marine gave the answer his followers and servants had been waiting for.
"For all of you, 'Lord Atreus' will be enough," he said in a tone filled with implication—one that did not escape the Tech-Priest observing the scene.
The cogitators implanted within her analyzed the Space Marine's intonation and simulated several interpretations of the words directed toward the mortal girl.
The most probable conclusion was that he reserved that particular form of address for a very select circle.
"So… he will no longer be addressed simply as 'Lord'?" she thought, deciding to report the matter to her mentor later.
Far too many remarkable events had occurred for Tartaros's "Omnissiah" not to be delighted to hear about them.