Mortarion's Plan

"Not bad?"

"Passable," Vokes coughed. His throat itched, and he hoped the Apothecaries had cleared all the crawling things from his esophagus.

The dry, clean reality still felt like a dream, but the faint sense of disgust and the Ultramarines emblem on the ceiling constantly reminded him that this was not the Warp.

Just now, without Vokes even asking, Hades had taken the initiative to explain his condition. The metal mask covering the lower half of Hades's face now gleamed with a cold light.

Rather than the anger he had heard from Buz earlier, this half-decayed Death Guard felt boundless melancholy.

Even Hades could not escape corruption... though what he suffered was a curse from the physical world.

But at least he was still Hades.

"...There will be a solution."

Vokes spoke, and Hades nodded.

"For now, I can keep these forces in check."

Vokes fell silent for a moment.

"You've become pessimistic, Wraith. I mean a permanent solution... We can seek out the Necrons."

The Necrons?

Hades considered it. Perhaps Trazyn would choose to help him, but judging by Trazyn's intentions, that kind-hearted Necron would likely be tied up in lawsuits between dynasties for some time.

Besides... when they met again... who knew what their relationship would even be? What exactly was the relationship between the Imperium and the Necrons?

"The Death Guard has contacted other Necrons?"

Vokes nodded.

"We never gave up... There is a specialized tomb-raiding team within the Death Guard. We also possess some Necron technology, though we have never revealed it to the outside world."

"I suppose Buz doesn't know either?"

"He doesn't."

Vokes explained,

"Before he went into slumber, he was always a prime concern of the Imperium. We could not expose ourselves."

"That technology has always been kept by the Death Guard's Tech-Sergeants,