43 Undercurrents

Chapter 45 43. Undercurrents

Endurance, Space Marine personal quarters.

Present.

Inside the dark room, a faint red light flickered. The clock by the door ticked over to "3:48."

Hades lay in bed, unable to sleep, the images from earlier still replaying in his mind.

The Custodian Guard and Silent Sister, and that massive scythe...

Hades was certain the scythe had something to do with the Untouchable.

His own Null Field had flowed into that giant scythe so easily...

Was it a weapon specifically designed for Untouchables?

The massive, heavy scythe, even for Hades, a Space Marine considered large, would be somewhat strenuous to swing.

Not to mention the Silent Sisters. Although they were all warriors in their own right, the giant scythe was clearly not designed for normal human physiques.

As for his encounter with the Silent Sister earlier, Hades was also slightly confused. His Null Field didn't seem to be the same as the "Null Field" they generated.

But if he wasn't an Untouchable, how could Hades' constitution be explained?

However, the Emperor had already gifted Hades a scythe clearly tailored to his constitution, indicating he understood Hades' nature.

So, he was probably a mutated form of Untouchable!

Yes! That was it!

Hades, unable to come up with any other reasonable explanation, was giving up on logic in spectacular fashion—

Things he couldn't understand... he shouldn't dwell on.

The giant scythe the Emperor had bestowed upon him actually provided a layer of reassurance for Hades, letting him know that he wasn't dangerous, nor had he been tainted by Chaos.

He could use his Null Field without worrying about it being a Chaos plot.

As for the scythe, Hades thought, although his Null Field couldn't currently break through his skin, he could use the scythe to extend his Null Field, achieving the effect of suppressing Psykers or the Warp.

In fact, when he first realized his Null Field couldn't break through his skin, the bizarre image of expanding his Null Field to his skin, then grappling with an enemy Psyker to suppress their Psychic Power, had flashed through Hades' mind.

Too bizarre.

Hades felt goosebumps rise.

At four o'clock, the lights in the room turned on automatically. Hades put aside his thoughts, got up, and put on his everyday combat armor, preparing to start his first day of training.

Although he hadn't slept all night, his modified body wasn't tired at all, but full of energy.

Hades left his room to find a figure in MKII power armor standing at his door.

The white and green power armor had hastily added ceramic plates crisscrossing over it. Although they had been integrated into the armor, they occasionally flashed with a different luster than the armor as a whole as he moved.

The veteran standing before Hades was clearly a head taller than the others passing them in the corridor, but still slightly shorter than Hades.

"Follow me, I'll take you to your arming."

The veteran's deep voice came from his helmet. Hades was startled to realize the helmet's built-in translator had converted the speaker's language into Barbaran.

With that, the veteran started moving with the flow of people, Hades following close behind.

Sigh... he didn't even tell me his name.

Hades kept pace with the veteran. He looked around and realized this entire level was filled with power armor similar to the veteran's.

So, he was the only recruit on this level?!

What's going on?

Hades wondered silently.

Endurance, Space Marine armory.

Present.

The once-bright armory was now as dim as night, lit only by the starlight of candles lit by Servitors, illuminating the hazy room.

The Servitors bustled about the room, surrounding a circular, low platform in the center with candles.

Soon, the new recruit would be coming for his arming.

In the darkest corner of the room, Garo, Captain of the Seventh Company, stood motionless in his power armor.

He hoped the recruit he had selected would not disappoint him.

Before the Primarch was found, the Dusk Raiders would be deliberately reduced in strength in the mid-to-late stages of the Great Crusade, until the Primarch's return.

When Mortarion took over the Dusk Raiders, there were over 70,000 Dusk Raiders in total.

The transformation of Barbaran recruits was also in full swing. With the Gene-seed accumulated earlier, a total of 30,000 Barbarans were successfully transformed.

If you only looked at the numbers, each company would have about two veterans leading one recruit.

But that wasn't the reality. Setting aside Dreadnoughts, Techmarines, Librarians, Apothecaries, and other specialized warriors who couldn't train recruits, the number of new recruits each company was willing to accept varied greatly.

After Mortarion's reorganization, the Death Guard now had seven Great Companies, each composed of several Battalions of seven hundred men. Each Battalion was further divided into seven Squads.

The number of men in each Great Company also varied significantly; it wasn't a simple matter of evenly distributing seventy thousand men among the companies.

Barasyn's First Company was the largest, numbering over twenty thousand.

The Second Company was smaller, with just over seven thousand men.

The numbers in the following companies also varied.

But Garo's Seventh Company, a battle company, was the smallest of all.

Just two Battalions, a little over fourteen hundred men.

When it came to assigning the new recruits to training companies, Mortarion gave all the power to Barasyn.

The recruits being trained wouldn't necessarily serve in that company afterward. After their recruit period, they would have the right to choose their company.

Although, in all likelihood, the recruits would stay in the company where they trained.

Mortarion's move was precisely to gauge the attitude of each company.

The company commanders were well aware of this.

Barasyn, commander of the First Company, immediately took fifteen thousand recruits, while the Second Company only wanted five hundred.

After that, The Third Company took four thousand five hundred.

The Fourth Company took four thousand five hundred.

The Fifth Company took two thousand five hundred.

The Sixth Company took three thousand.

By the time the recruitment list reached Garo, all the recruits had been assigned.

Garo, of course, knew his brothers' intentions.

The Seventh Company was originally the most special unit in the Dusk Raiders, only battle-hardened veterans, who had crawled out of piles of corpses countless times and were most loyal to the Emperor, would be approved by their original company to enter the Seventh Company.

Therefore, some of the veterans in the Seventh Company reacted more strongly to the Primarch's return, and Garo had received more than one death mission request.

In the eyes of the other company commanders, it was impossible for such a company to take in new recruits. So, they snatched up the recruit slots as if they were fighting over them, then gave Garo an apologetic smile.

But Garo wasn't as averse to the Primarch's return as they imagined.

He was the Emperor's sword, and if the Primarch could maximize his power, then Garo would offer his loyalty to the Primarch.

They were all fighting for the Emperor, and they shouldn't have any other distractions.

For the Emperor.

Garo murmured to himself subconsciously once more.

For the Emperor, he needed to lead the Seventh Company to maximize its effectiveness after the Primarch's return.

If he rashly introduced new recruits who were weak in combat and disrespectful to the veterans, the Seventh Company would inevitably be dissatisfied. But if no new recruits entered, future recruitment would be difficult, and a tree without roots wouldn't last long.

During the new recruit modification surgery, Garo had been tracking the performance of each recruit with good stats on Barbarus.

"Seventh Company, two."

Garo said.

The other company commanders looked at Garo in surprise.

When Barasyn reported the number of new recruits in each company to Mortarion, Mortarion, who was reconstructing and analyzing war records, seemed to listen rather absentmindedly.

The number of new recruits in each company was about what he expected.

Until—

"Seventh Company, two."

Mortarion raised an eyebrow.

Small notes:

The Death Guard's strength in the early stages of the Horus Heresy should have been around 95,000, making it a relatively small legion. (This is also related to their tendency to fight wars of attrition.)

Then, in the later stages of the Great Crusade, legions that hadn't found their Primarch would appropriately reduce their forces while retaining their gene-seed.

So I estimated that there are currently about 70,000 Death Guard veterans, and then a new recruit boom added about 30,000, averaging about one new recruit for every two veterans.

But there are warriors like Dreadnoughts, company commanders, Techmarines, Apothecaries, and Librarians who can't train new recruits, so in reality, a new recruit doesn't get two veterans.

Moreover, I've privately set it so that the number of Barbarus natives assigned to each company is different. In fact, this is the case in the original work. (It's okay, they can be reassigned later.)

Before the Great Heresy, the First Company had the most Barbarus natives in the Death Guard, while the Second, Fifth, and Seventh Companies had the fewest.

Among them, the Seventh Company basically had no Barbarus natives. The battle company was full of the fiercest Terra hardliners, and was also a relatively xenophobic group.

And the Death Guard's structure is

Legion - Company - Battalion - Squadron - Squad.

(I couldn't find the Death Guard's organizational structure before the Horus Heresy, so I extrapolated one from the Plague Company structure after their fall to Nurgle.)

Other Legions follow the structure of Legion - Chapter - Battalion - Company - Platoon - Squad.

Mortarion directly cut out the top two levels, setting the full strength of each company at 70,000, but that number was never reached.

I apologize, I'm going to start freelancing on the specific numbers for the Death Guard companies.

My math isn't great, so just enjoy the story.

The Death Guard's numbers have always been low. For comparison, the Ultramarines and Word Bearers of the same period both had over 200,000, while the Death Guard had only 95,000.

(No choice, always fighting attrition battles, and the recruiting worlds aren't helping.)

And now I'm going to start adding original Legion characters, I'm very sorry.

Happy reading. (_)