Chapter 254: The Death Guard's Handbook
".…What is this?"
A Death Guard stood at the door of his quarters, staring intently at the booklet in the Grave Warden's hand.
Printed on the cover were the words Death Guard's Handbook. Beneath the bold title, the emblem of the Death Guard was stamped.
"The Legion Commander ordered it. Everyone gets one."
The Grave Warden wore a weary, 'whether you read it or not, I don't care' expression, as if he had been dragged into this task against his will.
The soldier's suspicious gaze lingered on the dubious booklet and then shifted to the Grave Warden himself. After a moment's hesitation, he finally reached out and took the handbook.
The Grave Warden gave him a heavy nod, then hugged the stack of booklets in his arms and went off to intercept the next unlucky recipient.
The Death Guard returned to his quarters, still clutching the so-called Death Guard's Handbook.
Lights-out for the Legion had not yet been called. The Death Guard sat at the edge of his bed, letting his eyes wander over his room.
Death Guards were permitted to keep personal belongings, but most of them ignored this allowance. As far as he knew, apart from standard-issue equipment, few bothered to keep anything, and those who clung too much to the past were looked down upon.
His own quarters were likewise bare. On his desk sat the alien skull he had torn off after his first victorious battle, its hollow eyes staring silently at him. Beyond that, the room contained nothing superfluous.
Sometimes he went to the archives to flip through whatever he could find—usually illustrated books, idly browsing the pictures.
Other times he joined the other warriors in the dueling cages. The Death Guard's dueling cages were always in short supply; even after three expansions, demand still far exceeded availability.
When he didn't feel like doing either of those, he went to the training hall to swing his scythe alone—or simply sat there, staring into nothing.
Staring into nothing was, in fact, an excellent way to deal with boredom.
He could feel himself becoming ever more taciturn. Back on Galaspar, he had been more willing to speak with his family, or to seek out idlers and exchange a few meaningless words.
But after joining the Death Guard, after undergoing the surgeries, he could feel the past fading fast, blurring at the edges.
Galaspar was no longer the place that had once left such a deep mark on him. That massive hive world was already dissolving in his memory, becoming just another indistinct blur.
He had asked other Death Guards about this, and they all told him the same: their pasts were slowly fading away, while the Legion reshaped them, molding them into silent scythes.
Only the Barbarus-born were slightly different—their connection to the Primarch and their homeworld allowed them to retain more memories than others. But that hardly mattered; they were more Death Guard than the Death Guard themselves.
He had once been troubled by this, but the Grave Warden's answer had been blunt and to the point:
The Legion was forging them into weapons—sharp scythes. They were either in battle, or on their way to battle.
Their role was clear. They were weapons, and weapons had no need for thoughts.
The resilient sons of Mortarion accepted the mission granted to them by the Imperium, loyally cutting down psykers and xenos filth alike.
Very well, then.
He had accepted that explanation. Yet deep down, one question still lingered:
If the wars ever ended, what would become of them?
But he knew the truth—wars would never end, not for the individual. Never.
Perhaps the long-lived Primarch could one day find the answer. But he himself never would.
He blinked, cutting short his drifting thoughts. There were still fifteen minutes before lights-out.
Fine. He shifted his gaze to the booklet in his hand.
There was nothing else to do anyway.
With that thought, he opened to the first page.
[Authored by Hades, current commander of the Death Guard]
[Supervised by Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard Legion]
The Death Guard's eyes widened slightly. Mortarion? Their Primarch, their father?
And the other name—Hades. This mysterious and promising young commander was the subject of countless rumors within the Death Guard.
Immediately, his posture straightened. His attitude toward reading this book turned solemn as he carefully flipped to the second page.
[After discussion, we have decided to provide the warriors of the Death Guard Legion with some guidance for their daily lives. —Hades]
Then came the table of contents. Uninterested, he skipped ahead straight to the main text.
[1. The Purpose of the Death Guard Legion—Why We Must Annihilate Xenos and Psykers (by Mortarion)]
He read carefully. The Primarch had collected and organized all the scattered statements he had made during their training, laying them out in a clear, logical explanation of why psykers and xenos deserved death.
At the end, Mortarion emphasized the present necessity of deploying psykers within the Legion, and forbade discrimination against the Librarians.
He still disliked psykers, and xenos as well. Both gave him the same deranged, twisted impression. Any rational person would look down on them.
Perhaps he did not fully understand the Great Crusade, but he did understand why the Death Guard must purge psykers and xenos: they were scum of the galaxy, and had to be wiped out.
[2. The Individual and the Legion (by Hades)]
He would never admit it, but his emotions had clearly stirred at the sight of this chapter title. That sudden, nameless feeling was far subtler and more thrilling than the anger and hatred he had just experienced in the first chapter.
He read on.
The author—Hades, commander of the Death Guard—wrote in a humorous yet simple style, explaining the relationship between the Legion and its warriors. The Legion shaped the individual, but the individual also influenced the whole.
The warriors' responsibility was absolute and necessary. The Imperium and the Legion had invested vast resources into them, expecting them to fight for mankind. And through their battles, countless more humans were indeed freed.
He nodded silently and turned the page—
His pupils shrank sharply.
A high-resolution image of Galaspar lay quietly before him.
It was Galaspar after the Death Guard had taken over.
This… this—
His hand instinctively reached out, brushing across the picture. The colors of memory began to regain clarity, yet they had changed. The world was no longer so filthy, no longer so chaotic.
He swallowed hard. He wondered how his sister was faring now, back on Galaspar.
[The Death Guard's battles bring liberation and renewal. We successfully liberated Galaspar, and rebuilt its warped and ravaged environment—both its social fabric and its ecology.]
[In the foreseeable future, the Death Guard will liberate and improve more human worlds. Thus far, Barbarus, Galaspar, Drune, and the seventh mining moon of Rust have all been placed under the proper governance of the Death Guard.]
[Every individual should be aware of what the Legion is doing, for it concerns the actions of each one of us. The Legion calls upon and encourages every warrior: if you wish to improve yourself in order to better serve the Legion's goals, the Death Guard will provide you with the means to do so.]
[For details, please refer to Appendix II.]
Without waiting for a second, he flipped straight to the back.
Lights-out was drawing close.
Appendix I was a map, marking several specialized function rooms.
[Appendix II: Personal Development]
[In order to enrich the spare time of our warriors, while also enhancing personal ability, the Death Guard—together with experts from various fields—offers a range of training courses.]
[Note: If you wish to contribute more swiftly to the Legion, there is currently a pressing need for warriors skilled in environmental and social governance. After warfare ends, you must be able to establish a relatively stable system for the local population in a short span of time.]
He read on. The environmental governance courses required knowledge of pharmacology and biology, as well as ecological botany and toxin management. The Primarch himself would personally oversee the courses on toxins.
That one was bound to be popular. He could already foresee it.
Then came social governance, with Commander Hades personally responsible. For this, he had drawn up a dauntingly long reading list—so long it left the Death Guard a little despairing.
Probably not many would sign up for that course, he guessed.
Lights-out came.
The room fell dark, but an Astartes' eyesight allowed him to read the text clearly even in the gloom. He abandoned his earlier idea of using the booklet merely to pass the time; instead, he kept reading.
Later chapters even mentioned things like cooking classes and lessons in social skills. Would anyone actually sign up for those? He couldn't help but doubt it.
But aside from those, the other parts were written with remarkable clarity—or rather, with genuine interest. Compared to everything aboard the Endurance, this little booklet, with its jokes printed at the bottom of every page, was far more engaging.
He turned the pages over and over, rereading the contents again and again: how to face the loss of comrades, how to recover from a temporary defeat in battle, how to deal with the many different types of humans encountered on campaigns, what to do when new recruits were shunned by veterans—
Most of the material was authored by Hades. What kind of man was this? he wondered. There was a vibrancy in Hades' words, a vitality.
Strangely, he thought, Hades seemed more complete than any of them.
This should have been distributed earlier. A faint jealousy stirred in him toward the soon-to-be-recruited Rust's seventh mining moon conscripts—they would get to see this from the very beginning.
At last, in the hush of darkness, he opened once more to the page with the image of Galaspar, holding the book over his eyes. He felt the rough texture of the paper, rising and falling with his breath.
Then he closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.
<+>
If you want to see more chapter of this story and don't mind paying $5 each month to read the latest posted chapter, please go to my Patreon [1]
Latest Posted Chapter in Patreon: Chapter 305: Followers of the Demon?[2]
Link to the latest posted chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141568973?collection=602520[3]
https://www.patreon.com/collection/602520?view=condensed[4]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/Thatsnakegirl
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/141568973?collection=602520
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/141568973?collection=602520
[4] https://www.patreon.com/collection/602520?view=condensed