Warhammer: Saving Humanity Begins with the Resurrection of Horus

Page 39

But soon, a mocking look appeared on his face, and as time went on, this mocking look became more and more intense.

"Let me go? Hah, you think I'd believe your lies..."

"I swear in the name of the Emperor, in the name of Terra, Luna, and humanity, and in my own soul, if I fail to win the upcoming public trial, I will release Rufus Huron, and I will bear the consequences myself."

The solemn oath, and seeing Lynch's expression, Huron was completely stunned. His nose twitched twice, and he began to observe his surroundings out of the corner of his eye. He noticed that while this mortal was making his oath, neither Ryan nor anyone else made a sound; they were all still carrying out their current tasks.

That means they had no objection to the decision to hold a public trial, and one could even say that they had a strange confidence in this mortal named Lynch.

Why? Is it because of that inexplicable sense of familiarity and warmth he exudes?

Huron felt as if he had suddenly stumbled upon a crucial clue, a strange sense of familiarity and kinship that was inexplicable to an Astartes; he seemed to have heard Almenus mention it to him before…

What is it?

Huron glanced at the collapsed ruins out of the corner of his eye and sighed helplessly. Almenus must be dead. He was on the first floor, facing the barrage of fire from these heavy vehicles.

I was lucky; otherwise, I would probably be a complete corpse by now.

"Have you thought it through? This opportunity for a public trial was not given by me, but rather it was an opportunity that these loyalists have won over from me—no, it should be said that humanity has given to the Star Claws."

Lynch spoke calmly, interrupting Huron's thoughts. After a long ten seconds, Huron took a deep breath, looked at Lynch, and slowly nodded.

“Your name is Lynch, right? Mortal, since you are willing to swear an oath, then I am also willing to swear an oath. I swear in the name of the Claw of the Stars that if I win this public trial, I will not lay a hand on you or those who follow you.”

Huron said this with a serious expression. Although his handsome and dignified face was covered with dust, his demeanor was not disheveled at all.

Lin Qi suddenly understood why, in the original history, the other party was able to successfully carve out an empire from the chaos.

Regardless of whether his claim of letting him off the hook is a lie or not, the fact that he can say such a thing and do it flawlessly already puts him ahead of most of the chaotic, abstract types and the mentally ill.

“So you agree to my public trial, Ryan. Untie his chains.”

"Lord Lynch, this..."

"It's alright, I trust your protection of me, and... he's not that stupid if he wants his warband to maintain its current morale in the future."

Ryan fell silent for a moment, then stood beside Lynch, placing his hand on the explosive pistol at his waist, his deep eyes fixed on Huron.

Another soldier walked over and, somewhat reluctantly, untied the chains binding Huron. After being freed, Huron didn't rush to speak, but instead stretched his muscles, loosening them and making them more flexible.

"Thank you for your respect, Lynch."

"This is merely a final act of courtesy. So, let's begin, Huron Warband Commander. The timer starts now. You have five minutes to defend yourself, and after that, I will refute you. If, after the rebuttal, the warriors present feel that you have done nothing wrong, then I will keep my oath and release you."

After saying that, Lin Qi pointed to the servo skull that was floating between the two of them.

"The loudspeaker is on. Please proceed, Commander Huron."

Huron looked at Lynch, but didn't speak immediately. After a long silence, he made a request to Lynch.

"Lynch from Terra, please allow me to address you as such. Before I begin my defense, I would like you to recount my crimes to the three thousand two hundred and twenty-four Starclaw warriors present."

"Alright, Huron, according to Terra's statistics, you have committed a total of crimes including tax evasion, murder, illegally keeping psionicists, colluding with cults, assassination, slandering loyal nobles of the Empire, heretical ideas, trafficking in contraband, establishing a mortal auxiliary army without Terra's permission, violating the Codex Astartes..."

Lynch quickly rattled off a long list of charges, many of which he had actually made up on the spot. However, these charges, when directly attributed to Huron, did not constitute any form of slander.

Because he really did it all.

Huron listened calmly to the charges against him, and then, in front of everyone, he nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"Yes, I did commit these crimes."

The servo skull's amplification device played its full role at this moment. Huron's voice was instantly amplified several times, and then quickly spread outwards, reaching the ears of every Star Claw Astartes present.

At this moment, even some members of the 1st and 3rd Companies, who were originally loyal to Huron, showed expressions of horror. They went to their superiors and began to ask if some of the things were true.

Clearly, some of these charges were unknown even to these nominal Huron supporters.

Leo, the company commander of the first company, had a gloomy look in his eyes. He had just been brought here by Casio, only to hear Huron begin to confess.

Damn it, what is Huron trying to do?!

Leo gritted his teeth. He was aware of what Huron had been doing. Even if he didn't know the full story of things like colluding with cults or embracing heretical ideas, he had heard bits and pieces from Almenus or Salkota...

He had essentially tacitly approved of these things, since in his view, Huron was forced to do them by Terra and made a choice for the future of Star Claw.

However, just because he can understand it doesn't mean that others can.

For example, right now, several ordinary soldiers from his company have started questioning the sergeants, wanting to get a real answer from them.

Huron, what exactly are you trying to do?

Leo thought angrily, looking at Huron and Lynch who was confronting him, and secretly made his own assessment.

Huron heard the voices coming from the crowd. His expression remained unchanged, but he looked at Lin Qi with an unreadable look in his eyes.

Lynch heard it too, but his expression didn't change much. He simply looked at Huron and spoke calmly.

"You have four minutes left. Go on, or you can remain silent if all you want to do is plead guilty."

"Confess?... Yes, of course I will confess, but the crimes I confess to are not the ones Terra has pinned on me."

The reversal is coming.

Lin Qi watched as Huron's emotions gradually became more and more agitated, and together with Horus, who had already separated from his body, they waited to see what tricks the other party would play.

"If I were to name the crimes I've committed, I would say only these three."

"Firstly, I failed to quell the Great Vortex and completely expel the aliens and heretics within it."

"Secondly, I failed to lead the Star Claws out of the sector, to continue the glory of our chapter's martyrs, to fight against the Black Legion, and to kill Abaddon."

"Thirdly, I failed to wipe out all the insectoids on Terra, so that the Empire could be great again and humanity's glory could shine as brightly as it did ten thousand years ago."

Huron's words gradually quieted the surrounding crowd, and he began to look around before finally fixing his gaze on Lin Qi in front of him.

"Lynch from Terra, if you insist on judging me, then I believe that the only crimes you can judge are these three."

Lin Qi looked at Huron, thinking that the other party would give him a good opportunity, but he didn't expect that the other party would give him a big one in the end.

What was that joke called again?

You participated in the Second Reich, you stood outside the siege of Terra, you arrived with your shell in Macragge, a portion of your legion defected, and you yourself even learned the evil magic of Chaos...

And then you tell me that everything you did was for the Empire, for humanity, and that you were actually loyal?

Lynch sneered, and Horus beside him sneered along with him.

They all roughly guessed Huron's idea: to take the moral high ground and gamble that they didn't have enough evidence to prove his crimes one by one. As long as there was even the slightest loophole, he could find a way to deny that it was perjury by Terra and that it was invalid.

Then he can deceive those unsuspecting members of the battle group and win the public trial.

If Lynch were just an ordinary Imperial Inquisitor or someone else, then there was indeed a possibility that Huron's words might have created a loophole, giving the other side an opportunity to strike him down.

But he wasn't. As a time traveler, he was well aware of the mess Huron had made, not to mention the preparations he had made during that period.

"You mean, even though you've done a lot, you're still loyal, right?"

“That is natural, and I believe that my actions have been approved by the chapter and have successfully fulfilled the responsibilities entrusted to us by the Empire.”

A smile slowly appeared on Huron's face, and his voice began to have a strong infectious quality, drawing people in involuntarily.

"Do you think my brothers don't know? The warband is expanding day by day, and our numbers have long exceeded the limits set by the Holy Scripture. But what has violating the Holy Scripture actually brought us?"

"In just a few decades, we have accomplished with the strength of a single warband what previously required several warbands. We have provided strong protection for every world in the Badab system and even took the initiative to fight against the aliens that were rampaging inside the Great Vortex."

"And why would we violate the Codex Astartes? Is it really because of my ambition? Terra has never considered the pressure of the Great Vortex. While we face threats from all sides, they are still continuously draining the power from here. Our duty as the Star Claws is to protect the Great Vortex, and in order to achieve this goal, it is inevitable that we will make some choices."

“My actions were only taken under duress from the insects of Terra. Their accusations are simply because I exceeded their control. They are always like this, doing nothing but fearing that their power will be threatened.”

Huron opened his arms, and an indignant expression appeared on his face.

"How can we fulfill our duty to protect the Empire and humanity if we follow those insects and are bound by their rules? To put it bluntly, if I am guilty, then the High Lords of Terra are guilty ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times more guilty than I am!"

Huron's words were passionate and inspiring, and his gestures and intonation created a powerful and persuasive effect that resonated deeply with the audience.

Some of the Astartes who were unaware of the truth were already showing signs of leaning towards him. If Lynch made any mistakes in his rebuttals, he would seize upon them and turn those mistakes into fatal wounds.

Lynch took a deep breath and asked Horus in his mind.

"Should I speak first, or do you go ahead and do it?"

"You go first, I'll take a look."

"Okay, I'll go first then."

Lynch received a response, raised his head, and met Huron's gaze without the slightest fear.

The scene was somewhat comical, because compared to Huron, Lynch's thin body, coupled with the fact that he was still wearing the Chapter servant's clothes, made him look like a believer gazing upon the face of a giant.

However, for this giant, what the believer was about to do next was not devout faith, but naked attack and harm.

"Huron, you said everything you did was for the Empire, right?"

"Yes."

"Then let me ask you, when you submitted that petition to Terra, what conditions did you submit? No doubt about it, it was the petition where you wanted Terra to give you support and help you completely take over the Vortex."

"I only asked for a little reinforcement and some autonomy."

“A little reinforcement? If sending a large number of Astartes Legions and, if necessary, rebuilding the army, can be considered a little reinforcement for the Empire, then the Empire will not be facing so many difficult enemies.”

Lynch watched as Huron's face gradually darkened, showing no mercy whatsoever. His words were like a sharp scalpel, relentlessly peeling back the layers of truth that Huron had tried to conceal, exposing them to the world.

"As you submit this petition, the Empire is under attack from countless enemies. Within the Limitless Starfield, the aliens known as Tyrannosaurus have extended their tentacles here. And in the distant Eye of Terror and the Ghoul Cluster, lurking dangers have been reawakened."

"War raged across the empire, and rumors spread throughout its borders. Rebellions and strange phenomena were everywhere, and indeed, many problems arose in the Great Vortex, including orc attacks and the impact and harm caused by its massive storms on what was originally a safe shipping route."

Having said that, Lynch looked at Huron and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Furthermore, haven't you noticed? Terra initially turned a blind eye to your private military expansion and certain actions. After all, your increased strength could indeed become a solid barrier protecting Terra, which was even a good thing for the High Lords."

"So whether it's violating the Astartes Code to expand the army in private, or establishing mortal auxiliary armies, fortresses, and outposts that shouldn't have been established, these are not really serious mistakes and are still within the scope of forgiveness."

Huron began to realize something was wrong, and his breathing became slightly more rapid, but he maintained his composure in his tone.

"Then what was my mistake? Was it not paying taxes? For the sake of development, I must withhold the original tax revenue, the Empire's..."

“No, to the high lords of Terra, your failure to pay taxes may indeed be a big deal, but to me, or rather, to him, what truly makes you unforgivable is something else entirely.”

Lynch's voice turned icy cold. At the same time, a soul descended into his body, transferring control of the body from Lynch to "Linch".

"You only have one real mistake."

White psionic flames ignited on his right hand. To Huron's astonishment, confusion, and disbelief, "Lynch" stepped forward and placed his hand on the unarmored body of the person being judged. In the next instant, the white flames rapidly expanded, completely enveloping the entire body.

"That means you shouldn't have colluded with Chaos and betrayed humanity."