On the emperors lash battleship, in the Captain's quarters... The dim room gradually revealed a man's face. His name was Malakin Forros, Lord of the Carcharodons, King of Destruction, and Watcher of the Abyss.
He was currently sitting in a dimly lit office, his face grim, his eyes filled with pain and hatred. His voice was low and trembling as he slowly began:
"I believe in the Imperium, and fighting for the Emperor fills us with honor. We constantly adhere to the Imperium's directives in leading my Space Marine Chapter. We have often been doubted, but! We have never betrayed our loyalty and honor."
"We face various cruel enemies: Chaos, bugs, Orks... We fight them on various battlefields, giving our all, and we have no complaints. In the Battle of Phalanx, where we fought alongside you, we suffered heavy losses on High Ground 30. Those traitors and Chaos Daemons wanted to annihilate us, but we defeated them; their objective was not achieved."
"But we suffered cruel losses. After the battle, only one in ten warriors remained. They were covered in wounds, and only Chapter Master Huron's Apothecaries could save their lives... Their bodies and minds had long lost the capacity for pain and sorrow, but I cried... Why did I cry?"
"We cherish loyalty and honor as treasures. We are the descendants of angels, yet fate has cursed us... (sobbing)"
In the shadows, a man rested his cheek on one hand. Seeing Chapter Master Forros begin to sob, he lightly gestured with his hand. A blond young officer opened a glass bottle of cola with a bottle opener and handed it to Chapter Master Forros.
"I'm sorry..." Chapter Master Forros took the bottle of cola from the young officer's hand. The cola bottle looked as small as an oral solution in his grasp.
Forros took a sip of the "black bubbly oral solution" in his hand, then continued:
"I... I reported my losses to the Department of the Interior and the Department of Military Affairs like a law-abiding Imperial citizen, and they sent two officials to my ship."
"But they brought us no good news. Instead, they confiscated our few remaining gene-seed and weapons as a tithe... 'A tithe'! They showed no mercy, directly taking away our last hope! I stood in my battleship like a fool, and those two officials even smiled, because they had collected our tithe on time."
"When Huron learned of this, he said: 'To seek justice, we must go to Lord Li Feng.'"
Li Feng sat in a leather chair, his face hidden in darkness, only his slightly turning fingers tracing cold arcs in the air. Li Feng listened to Forros's plea without a word.
At this point, Li Feng also touched his nose and then rose from his chair: "Before you went to the Department of the Interior and the Department of Military Affairs officials, why didn't you come to me first?"
"What do you want me to do? Just give the order, but please, you must help me with this."
"Help you with what?"
Hearing Li Feng's question, Huron rose from the small chair that seemed like a baby's chair to him, walked around the table, and whispered into Li Feng's ear... "... (muttering~~)"
After hearing Forros's request, Li Feng sat up straight, watched Huron return to his chair, and scratched his cheek with his fingers, looking a bit troubled:
"I can't do that."
Forros now stood up from his chair, his hands resting on Li Feng's desk in a pleading posture. Beside Li Feng stood the blonde Reinhard, and on the sofa at the back of the room sat Siegfried and Yang Weili.
"Whatever you want, I will give you. In this battle, we Carcharodons will be at the very front."
At this moment, Li Feng picked up a Sanguinius doll from the table and began to play with it in his hand, his fingers occasionally rubbing the pure white velvet feathers on the Sanguinius doll's back... "This is the first time you've come to me for help. I can't recall if we even spoke last time on Frax, not to mention your leader Huron is my sworn brother. I'll be frank, you never wanted my friendship; you feared owing me a favor, which would affect your honor."
Forros awkwardly explained, "I don't want to get involved in trouble like Chapter Master Huron..."
"I understand. You fight for the Imperium, a successor Chapter of the Blood Angels, children of the Angel Sanguinius. You have honor and the teachings of the Angel; you don't need a friend like me. But now you come to me saying, 'Lord Li Feng, please help me uphold justice,' yet you show me no respect. You don't treat me as a friend; you're not even willing to call me 'Teacher Li.' You come to me, just before I'm about to deploy troops against the Tau Empire, asking me to help you retrieve those weapons and gene-seed."
Forros reiterated once more: "I just hope you can uphold justice..."
Li Feng sat in his chair, pointing at Forros, and said word by word: "That is not upholding justice. The tithe is the most basic rule and law of the Imperium; it is an obligation that all of us must uphold."
Li Feng's words choked Forros, and he could only finally say:
"Then give me some weapons and equipment, so my warriors don't have to fight the enemy bare-handed, wearing half-armor... How much do I owe you?"
Li Feng lowered his head and then looked up, staring at Forros. The atmosphere in the room changed, even Yang Weili and Siegfried on the sofa felt that Forros's "social etiquette" needed improvement.
Li Feng placed the Sanguinius doll on the table, rose from his chair, and slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window behind him, looking at the starry sky outside. At this moment, Siegfried and Yang Weili also put their drinks on the side table and followed Li Feng to stand up.
"Chapter Master Forros, Chapter Master Forros... What exactly have I done to make you disrespect me so much? If you came to me as a friend, then you and your Astartes could fight the enemy with the best equipment in the entire Imperium. The enemies of an honest man like you are also my enemies, and then everyone will respect you, and your enemies will fear you."
Forros looked down at Li Feng, who had walked in front of him, and quietly asked, "Be my friend?"
Li Feng didn't answer, just raised an eyebrow... And Chapter Master Forros respectfully lowered his head, then knelt on one knee before Li Feng:
"Teacher Li..."
Li Feng looked at Forros, who was kneeling before him, roughly his height, and Forros also took Li Feng's hand, gently kissing the back of Li Feng's hand... "Very good." Li Feng said, then helped Chapter Master Forros up, and put his arm around him as they walked towards the door:
"Perhaps one day I will need your help, or perhaps that day will never come, but until that day arrives, accept this justice as a testament to our friendship."
Upon receiving Li Feng's answer, Forros breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on his face: "Thank you, Teacher Li... Thank you."
Listening to Forros's thanks, Li Feng also opened the door to the room, seeing Forros out: "You're welcome."
As the door closed, Reinhard, Siegfried, and Yang Weili also gathered around, and Li Feng began to assign them tasks:
"This task is for you, Xiao Yang, and Ma Yinglong. I need reliable minds; we are not forming factions, just helping out. See what equipment Huron has and what's on the mechanical ark, send it to them first, then notify the Department of the Interior on Terra that we will exchange some weapons for half of the Carcharodons' gene-seed."
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