Chapter 343: True and False |
The bridge was a cacophony of voices. A crowd had gathered to discuss "Palcador," vehemently condemning the Palu Orks for their lawlessness.
Horus let out a cold snort, and the room instantly fell dead silent.
"Did your Palu Ork boss deliberately send you here to humiliate us? Did you really think you could scare us off like this? Absurd! Prepare to face our wrath! You will be ruthlessly obliterated by the Imperium of Man, and your so-called True Ork God will never come to pass!"
Horus's bold declaration carried a magnetic power that stirred the emotions of everyone on the bridge.
"Lord Horus is right! The Palu Orks are doomed to perish!"
"In the name of the God-Emperor, you will pay a agonizing price for your actions!"
Faced with the indignant crowd, Palcador remained composed and unruffled:
"The Emperor's Exodus from Simoro, Chapter Three: The Disaster of World Destruction, page nine. The Emperor said:
"'Arrogance, prejudice, shortsightedness, and blind faith—if a nation possesses even two of these four traits, it will be destroyed.
Palcador spoke in High Gothic rather than Ork slang, allowing him to far more accurately convey the Emperor's quote he was citing.
The crew members of the age of apostasy did not read classic Imperial literature. Spending their days praying over scriptures compiled by the Ecclesiarchy, how could they possibly know of an obscure text like The Emperor's Exodus from Simoro?
They sneered at Palcador for trying to mystify things, or simply continued to shout angry rebukes at him.
Horus alone remained relatively calm.
"Quiet. Let me have a word with this despicable greenskin." Horus raised his right hand and made a fist, signaling for the crowd to hold their tongues.
He crossed his arms and lifted his chin toward Palcador:
"Your ascension ceremony will likely conclude within 24 hours, whereas it will only take us an hour to reach the ascension site via the Webway. I know you're stalling for time. I'll give you five minutes—say whatever you want to say. I am not giving you Palu Orks a chance to beg for mercy; I simply want to see what kind of schemes a greenskin with Malcador's genes can come up with. Speak. The timer starts now."
Click. The Magos standing nearby pressed the timer.
Palcador spoke at a measured, unhurried pace:
"Horus, you have a thorough understanding of our situation; I acknowledge that. By the same token, we know your situation like the back of our hands. At the ascension site, we have already prepared a feast of death, and you are the guests. You, along with everyone aboard these two thousand-plus warships, will be reduced to cosmic dust."
Horus maintained his crossed-arm stance, staring coldly at Palcador without saying a word.
Palcador continued:
"Both the Lord of Palu and I originated from the human populace. We do not wish to see the Imperium of Man heavily battered by the schemes of the Chaos Gods..."
Horus said coldly:
"If you truly feel that way, then go convince your master to halt his ascension instead of wasting time here."
Palcador remained unmoved, picking up right where his previous sentence had left off:
"We do not wish to see the Imperium of Man heavily battered by the schemes of the Chaos Gods, but that does not mean we will retreat. I will tell you right now what is about to happen.
"Fifty minutes from now, you will discover that the Webway route map given to you by the Eldar is a dead end. The Eldar spies lurking among you will carry out a series of sabotage operations, leaving the fleet stranded where it is.
"The Webway gate you traveled through to get here will be permanently sealed by the Eldar, and every last one of you will be trapped in the Webway dimension.
"At that same moment, the Warp Rift at Calasta will begin to expand. This is the handiwork of the Eldar; they have undone the seal without ever consulting you.
"Within minutes, the rift will engulf the entire Webway dimension. The Golden Gate will face the Warp directly, and your Emperor—your God-Emperor—will sit upon the throne and face the end of Terra."
"Fearmongering!" a senior commanding officer couldn't help but curse.
Another immediately shouted after him:
"Stop your despicable tricks! This will not stop us from pressing forward!"
The room erupted into a clamor once more.
Horus did not stop the crowd; there was a fire burning in his own heart as well, one that needed to be vented through the voices of others.
Palcador raised his hand and pressed the button to terminate the transmission, saying calmly:
"Goodbye."
Snap!
The video feed abruptly cut out. The crowd was left stunned, all kinds of filthy curses caught in their throats as if their necks had been clamped shut, rendering them soundless.
No one had expected the Palu Ork to end the call just like that, without even dropping a harsh parting threat!
The bridge fell silent for a few brief seconds before an even louder burst of curses erupted.
"Pointless tricks!"
"Disgusting, ugly greenskins!"
"Don't think you can scare us with such crude lies!"
"O God-Emperor, have you seen this? These Orks harbor dark intentions—please witness us obliterate them!"
Horus furrowed his brow, ignoring the noisy chatter.
He looked down at the Magos below and asked:
"Did the Augur Array detect any anomalies?"
"No, my Lord. That greenskin ship left without looking back; it did not launch any trackers, energy projectiles, psionic energy markers, or anything of the sort at our fleet. I am one hundred percent certain of this."
Horus's brow knitted even tighter as he signaled to another senior officer:
"Bring up the Webway route map provided by the Eldar."
"Yes, my Lord."
A few minutes later, Horus finished reviewing the map.
He pointed to the Webway zone they were currently occupying and said:
"Modify the Augur Array's scan results for me. Change the status of the Webway gate ahead from intact to destroyed, then sever the corresponding points on the route map and mark it as 'Dead End.' Finally, call the Eldar special envoy over. I want to ask him face-to-face why he provided an unworkable route map. All of you will coordinate with me to put on a good act—do you understand?"
The eyes of everyone on the bridge lit up as they instantly grasped Horus's intent. He wanted to use false information to bluff the Eldar envoy and see if the other party would slip up out of panic.
"As expected of Lord Lupercal—to have thought of such an effective method so quickly."
"The Warmaster possesses startling wisdom."
The crowd whispered among themselves before they were quickly subdued by Horus's icy glare, falling silent once more.
When Palcador had made his call, the Eldar special envoys happened to be meditating in the VIP room, entirely unaware of the exchange between Palcador and Horus.
The Eldar envoy delegation consisted of ten individuals, all of whom were Harlequins.
One of them was escorted onto the bridge. He immediately spotted the anomaly on the route map along with the eye-catching scan results, a flash of confusion passing through the depths of his eyes:
"The Webway gate... has been destroyed?"
"Come here," Horus said, beckoning the Eldar envoy with a finger and urging him on. "Don't just stand there dazed. Quickly show us another route to bypass that broken gate."
The envoy snapped back to reality and hurriedly said:
"No problem, but first, we have to backtrack along our original route and return to the previous Webway node."
The Magos cried out:
"This is bad, Lord Horus! The Webway gate we used to get here has been destroyed too! It seems we're trapped here!"
What fantastic acting!
The crowd looked at the Magos, secretly praising him in their hearts.
The Eldar envoy was startled by this:
"How is that possible? This place is still dozens of Webway gates away from the Palu Orks' ascension site. If they intended to ambush us, they shouldn't have chosen a place this far away, should they?"
A flawless performance—one that left no room for fault.
Either the Eldar truly had no intention of scheming against the human fleet.
Or, this particular Eldar envoy was unaware of the conspiracy's details, which was why he could act his part so convincingly.
Regardless, now that matters had reached this point, the majority of the people present came to the exact same conclusion:
That Ork calling himself Palcador was indeed just bluffing!
The Eldar hadn't set up any so-called traps at all!
Sure enough, there wasn't a single good thing among the greenskins!
A small minority maintained a cautious attitude—these were primarily technical officers, led by the Magos, who were inherently prudent when dealing with suspicious events.
Horus did not immediately believe that the Eldar envoy was innocent.
Just because the Eldar envoy standing before him was unaware did not mean the other envoys hadn't participated in a plot to ambush the human fleet.
Horus had the envoy wait in a corner of the bridge while he summoned another envoy, questioning him in the exact same manner.
One envoy after another walked onto the bridge, and one after another expressed confusion regarding the bizarre attack by the Palu Orks. The solutions they offered were all largely similar, and not a single one exposed a flaw.
After the last Eldar envoy finished giving his advice, Horus looked toward the Magos by the Augur Array. The latter understood the cue and spoke over the internal comms channel:
"Lord Horus, the polygraph indicates that the Eldar envoy did not lie; there is a 48.8% probability that they are genuinely unaware. There is an additional 51% probability that the Eldar have not laid any trap against us whatsoever."
Horus asked:
"Then what does that remaining 0.2% probability represent?"
"It represents that the Eldar did indeed set a trap, but these Eldar envoys are sacrificial pawns without the clearance to know the situation," the Magos stated truthfully.
Horus fell into deep thought.
From the perspective of tactical deduction, there was no necessity for the Eldar to scheme against the human fleet.
The human fleet was heading out to prevent Li Nuo from becoming the True Ork God.
Once they succeeded, it would be a massive boon for both the Eldar and humanity.
Conversely.
For the Eldar to frame the Imperium of Man's fleet and assist Li Nuo in achieving godhood was an act that completely went against the overarching interests of the Eldar—otherwise, they wouldn't have tried every possible way to provide the Imperium of Man with Li Nuo's ascension coordinates in the first place.
By emotion and by reason, from his perspective and theirs, and combining it with the results of the surprise interrogation of the Eldar envoys, Horus judged that Palcador's claims were pure fabrication.
"Continue forward," Horus ordered.
The master helmsman fired up the engines and gave the signal to depart, sending the fleet marching toward the next Webway gate.
An Eldar envoy asked in confusion:
"Horus, didn't you say the Webway gate was destroyed by the Palu Orks?"
Horus softened his tone and recounted the details of Palcador's appearance. Only then did the Harlequins realize that they had invisibly undergone a rigorous interrogation.
"My apologies; I hope you can understand my methods." Horus gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. "Although this examination was abrupt, it is undeniable that it has deepened the friendship between us. The Imperium of Man never mistreats its allies. Once this campaign is over, you will receive exceedingly generous compensation."
Horus's words completely blocked off anything the Eldar envoys might have said in protest.
The Harlequins exchanged glances with one another and decided not to dwell on the matter any further.
They returned to their lounge and resumed their pre-battle meditation.
Because the Palu Orks had constantly been lingering around the Craftworld, the Eldar could not spare a fleet to reinforce the Imperium of Man.
They had changed their strategy, adopting a "decapitation" approach to intervene in this campaign.
These dozen or so Harlequins were merely the first wave of personnel assigned to assassinate Li Nuo.
Once they followed the Imperium of Man to the ascension site, Lady Elina would use the teleportation beacons on their bodies to open a portal, sending through at least thirty more Harlequin assassins.
Combined, that made a total of fifty Harlequins, bringing the assassination's success rate to over ninety percent.
The God-Emperor and Elina had come to an agreement: after Li Nuo died, the portion of Warp essence he possessed would be co-owned by humanity and the Eldar, with the two sides dividing the Palu Empire in two and taking one half each.
Both parties agreed not to use the Warp essence to expand the total number of Ork troops, but merely to control their respective Palu Orks as expendable fodder for battle.
Whenever either side completely exhausted the Palu Orks in their hands, the portion of Warp essence they held would be placed inside the Imperial Palace of Terra to be guarded by personnel dispatched by the God-Emperor. From then on, that Warp essence could only be reactivated with the unanimous consent of both humanity and the Eldar.
With custody of the Warp essence in human hands, humanity stood to gain the most from this campaign. Therefore, the fleet and personnel participating in the battle were primarily from the Imperium of Man, while the Eldar assisted through assassination tactics.
For a period of time after that, everything proceeded in absolute peace.
...
...
At the ascension site, inside the strategic command room of the flagship.
Palcador was viewing the surveillance data forwarded from the Universal Hall.
Over the course of forty-some minutes, the Imperium of Man's fleet had passed through twenty Webway sectors. They were now less than twenty minutes away from the Webway gate near the ascension site.
Palcador picked up his Dataslate and sent out a voice message:
"Beast, is the detonation sequence for the Nano-Lens in place?"
"All taken care of. Just waiting on your word," Beast quickly replied.
Palcador then sent a message to Space:
"Wait for my signal. Get ready to lock down the Webway sector."
"Got it," Space acknowledged.
Palcador kept his eyes glued to the fleet's coordinates on the data chart.
The moment the Imperium of Man moved into a Webway sector marked in red, Palcador rapidly pressed a button on his Dataslate while dispatching a message to both Beast and Space:
"Do it! Now!"
After sending the message, he waited patiently for three seconds.
On the Webway route map, the Webway sector containing the human fleet suddenly turned from red to black.
Space's voice came through:
"Palcador, Webway lockdown successful. The humie fleet is trapped inside. Until we use the Universal Hall to fix the Webway gate, those humies aren't going anywhere."
"Excellent." Palcador clicked open Beast's comms channel. "Beast, what's the situation on your end?"
"Almost there, almost there! Give me just a little more time—the knife-ears are fighting our tech boys for control of the Warp Rift's sealing barrier... Waaagh! Got it! We did it! We've got control of the Warp Rift now!"
Beast shouted in excitement.
Palcador gripped his staff tightly and issued a deep, commanding order:
"Drop the barrier. Release the Warp Rift. Continue executing according to our plan."
"You got it!"
Palcador added:
"Space, monitor the comms signals of the humie fleet. Crack their channel identification codes and spread the news of the rift's expansion to them. If Horus is ready to beg for mercy, patch his comms signal through to me."
"Will do."
