Emperor's Bane

Chapter 193 Titanium is delicious
This is Captain Bradford of the Second Legion. I belong to the second branch of the Legion's Sixth Fleet, fleet number [102].

I will be here to make daily work log records to ensure that what happened during this period will be known to future generations.

按照我舰最后一座能够勉强运行的亚空间驱动计时器的推算，我写下这篇工作日志的大体时间应该是875. M30的下半年到876. M30的上半年之间，即伟大远征自泰拉开始后的No.70七或78年。

Due to equipment failure, our department cannot record the exact time, and can only estimate according to the memory of everyone. Therefore, in this log, all times will be based on the Terra standard day calculated by ourselves after we encountered the subspace storm. substitute.

Until the moment I actually write this journal, the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet has been completely out of touch with the Legion and all Imperial institutions for more than 300 Tara standard days.

During these three hundred days, we have experienced most of the horrors and challenges that we can encounter in the void: the confrontation with aliens, the war with hunger, the competition with natural disasters, the weakness of mortals and the inefficiency of bureaucrats all the time Instead of making these challenges more insane, anytime, anywhere, we will disappear into this area that has never been explored by anyone.

But, above the throne, most of us are still alive, and still have the strength and confidence to fight for the Empire.

We won, we survived.

In the name of the Second Legion Astartes, the Emperor of Mankind, and the Primarch, whom we have never met but are destined to be great, I write this journal to record this triumph full of tribulations and perseverance.

------

It all started with the warp storm in the Damocles sector.

At that time, the Sixth Fleet had just completed its visit to some parts of the world of Ultramar, and we were warmly received by the Ultramarines Legion. Although we could not go to Macragge to meet His Excellency No.13 Primarch Guilliman, Koss, Captain Orfeo received us and showed us part of the five hundred worlds. This investigation is of great value to the Sixth Fleet.

After the investigation was completed, the main force of the Sixth Fleet, about [-] fighters, assembled in the forge world of Connor in Ultramar, preparing to go to the area of ​​the maelstrom via the forge world of Ganz and the agricultural world of Taluntus. The foundry world of Reza: The Fleet reached an agreement with the Mechanic Bishop there. During this trip, we will obtain a large amount of supplies, enough to maintain the operation of the entire fleet for five years.

But when passing through the agricultural world of Massari, we received a request for help: it was a request for help from an imperial colonial fleet, and they were attacked by alien warships near the Damocles sector.

After a brief exchange, the fleet decided to temporarily divert to aid the people of the Empire.

But just when they arrived in the Damocles sector, all three branch fleets of the Sixth Fleet were attacked by a subspace storm without any warning.

At that time, the second branch of the Sixth Fleet where our ship was located, that is, the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet, was the only fleet that had not passed Mandeville Point and was thus stranded in the subspace. Therefore, when the storm ended, , we completely lost all contact with the first and third branch fleets, namely the 101st and 103rd expeditionary fleets.

We are lost in the warp.

But fortunately, all the ships of the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet can still maintain contact with each other, and the 1032 Astartes fighters have not lost any non-combat casualties. Next, the 102nd Fleet successfully jumped to the real universe on the No.13 Terra standard day after the trek.

Your Majesty the Throne, we have over a thousand Astartes warriors despite our early damage during the transition.

But the only problem is that the subspace engines of almost all warships have been damaged and destroyed to a certain extent in this sudden storm. On the ships, the regenerative equipment responsible for supplying survival supplies for mortal crew members was also damaged to varying degrees, reducing the entire fleet's supplies reserves to a very dangerous limit.

Fortunately, after implementing a strict and reasonable rationing system, we can still support it for a while.

According to the inferences of the navigator and astropath on the battleship, the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet was very likely to be engulfed by the subspace storm, crossed the entire Damocles sector, and came to the Far East, which the human empire had never explored. One of the most remote corners of the star field, none of the star maps in the fleet have marked the galaxies and worlds under our feet, and the warp space storm behind us also makes returning home a fantasy.

After discussing with the astropaths, navigators, mechanical priests and mortal captains, the supreme commander of the 102nd Fleet, Captain Brewster, issued an order: to move forward, to find a habitable world where supplies can be resupplied, and to return to the Imperium of Man way.

To be honest, when this order was issued, all soldiers, including me, felt an excitement similar to joy: exploring the unknown, just thinking of such words is enough to make us feel joyful and happy .

And I also know that soldiers like us belonging to the Sixth Fleet are the ones with the least desire to explore in the entire legion. If it is the group of guys from the Second Fleet, maybe they are already cheering.

But in any case, after the No. 102 Terra standard day when the 15nd Expeditionary Fleet encountered the warp space storm, we officially started the exploration of the vast land on the east side of the Damocles sector.

This exploration lasted about fifty Tara standard days, and the entire 102nd Expeditionary Fleet continued to make extremely short-distance leaps and moves in the subspace. These unlucky guys, I am afraid that there are no fools who would conduct this kind of subspace voyage.

But despite this, we have explored a considerable number of galaxies, and even found some habitable worlds. Although most of them are poor in resources and cannot supply the material needs of the entire fleet, we still obtained a lot of them through hunting and other methods. reserves, and recorded the locations of these worlds.

When the route numbered the galaxy [102-4], we even discovered an uninhabitable world full of extremely rich mineral resources. That world was almost entirely constructed of various rare minerals. The mechanical priests accompanying the army wanted to stay there at all costs. We had to knock them unconscious before taking them away, and ensured that they had the first mining rights in this world.

This kind of exploration lasted until five days, when we came to an unknown galaxy through a short-distance leap again, we encountered a battle.

------

Everyone should remember: the reason we ended up here was because we were trying to support a colonial fleet attacked by alien forces, so we encountered that warp storm on the way.

But what we didn't expect is that the colonial fleet that asked for help also encountered the subspace storm, and was also swept into the wasteland in the east of the Damocles sector, and the alien fleet that attacked them actually Also followed up.

When the 102nd Fleet jumped to this unnamed galaxy, we immediately discovered the colonial fleet driven to a dead end by the alien army. Captain Brewster quickly recognized the aliens.

That is the alien named [Kroot], with obvious bird characteristics. They are riding a [War Ball Ship] unique to their race. The ship is like a split football, with a diameter of It is a huge blasphemy engine about eight kilometers, loaded with countless kroot aliens, slaughtering the colonial ships of the empire one after another, from the star area in the center of the galaxy to the place where the battle is taking place, all the way all over the empire The remains of the ship.

The size of the imperial colonial fleet was astonishing, but they lacked sufficient cover of battleships: firepower lower than that of battleships would not be fatal to the vicious war engines of the Kroot, and this colonial army Although the fleet has a large number of cruisers and destroyers escorting it, it has never been able to break through the unusually thick and multiple void shield arrays of the alien warship, while the more than ten alien macro cannons and countless assault boats on the war ball ship can cause damage. Terrible killing.

Obviously, it is very difficult for these bloodthirsty alien beasts to block the fleet of the Empire with their silent and bloated blasphemous creations. These ugly creatures that feed on other races will never give up this. A chance to treat yourself to a meal.

Therefore, when they saw the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet: a fleet led by a large cruiser, they had no intention of withdrawing from the battle at all.

The alien army was enormous: more than 20, according to conservative estimates.

But even so, as the Emperor's Angels of Death, we have no second choice.

After the briefest exchanges and meetings, we finalized the battle plan: Given that the colonial fleet was no longer able to provide more help, and the gap between the 102nd Fleet and the Kroot aliens was too large, Captain Brewster finally decided to carry out A jump-off to destroy the alien is the war ball itself.

After the communication, the military chief of the Colonial Fleet gathered the last strength in his hands without hesitation. A large number of cruisers, destroyers and armed merchant ships launched a desperate charge towards the huge alien war engine. Most of the mortal warriors joined their battleships. Lost in this covering operation, but their sacrifice was of infinite value.

Under the cover of this charge, the flagship [Explorer] of the 102nd Expeditionary Fleet forcibly rushed to the side of the alien war engine. The stacked multiple void shield arrays of the Teren were temporarily invalidated. Captain Brewster led five hundred of the best fighters to conduct a jump-off operation towards the core area of ​​the alien mothership, and I was ordered to lead the fleet in On the outside for diversion and cover fire.

The battle was not easy, and for the next sixteen or so tera standard hours, Captain Brewster's party went on a long crusade aboard the warball: this desecrated engine of war was no mere kroot warship , is their void homeland, where a whole clan and 30 aliens reside.

And in the void, the most tormented war is still going on: the alien mothership's dozen huge macro cannons ravage all the warships, and all the means of the imperial fleet can't cause fatal damage to it.

It wasn’t until the No.16 Terra standard after the start of the jump gang operation that Captain Brewster told me a very strange sentence: The company commander firmly believed that there was a magical voice in his mind, that The voice was like a woman he had never seen before, but he couldn't help but want to follow the instructions and orders of that voice.

The voice told him a direction, one that would lead to the engine center of the xenomorph mothership, and if he could destroy the multiple equatorial fusion drives the xenomorph had placed there, he could win the battle.

I actually don't believe this strange thing, but Captain Brewster's attitude is extremely resolute, and the direction of the war is indeed extremely bad: if we don't seize this meager hope, we will only be greeted with an order to destroy the entire army .

So, I obeyed.

Captain Brewster led the last hundred jumping gang fighters, and launched a final charge in the direction indicated by the voice. After about two Terra standard hours, he pointed out the direction to me with his last breath.

We once again used the device donated by the Second Fleet. Taking advantage of the short gap when the alien mothership lost the protection of the void shield, all the imperial warships that could still fire poured out towards the direction that paid [-] Astartes fighters. Out of their last firepower and ammunition.

……

……

Successful.

The alien mothership was like a blown, bloody beast heart, and it fell apart in an instant. In just a few blinks, the explosion and flames completely killed this blasphemous space den. It has also become the immortal monument of Captain Brewster, the five hundred battle brothers of the Second Legion, and countless mortal warriors.

Those Kroot aliens scattered outside let out unbearable screams of pain. They frantically wanted to rush back to their mothership, or simply launched a suicidal attack on the nearest imperial warship to them: but this For once, they are the underdog.

It took us more than a dozen tera standard hours to slaughter the last kroot aliens in various ships. Collect the remains of our battle brothers, as well as some supplies and supplies that can be used by us.

We haven't found any relics of Captain Brewster. May he enjoy eternal peace.

However, we have collected a lot of blood-stained human food, which are obviously the spoils of kroot aliens.

And on one of the ruins, we found a very long and ancient mural: According to the description of this mural, this Kroot group has the power of at least forty thousand years: maybe even longer, it is the The only recorder of many important events in the Root race, and in the explosion just now, we killed the vast majority of the more than 30 lives of this race, and those who remained were also killed by us and all People were slaughtered one by one.

But that's pointless, I don't care how long these xenomorphs have had a culture: anyway, in today's day, we personally cut off the lineage, every member of the herd was slaughtered by angry mortals, none of them ended up The rest are all floating in this nameless empty tomb.

Forty thousand years, or more, in this universe, is nothing more than that.

------

After cleaning the battlefield, we had a negotiation with this colonial fleet: this fleet is very large in size, and it is composed of several small and medium colonial fleets from different star regions. A series of colonization activities were carried out on the western side of the Mocleris star sector.

After experiencing a series of accidents and wars, the fleet still carries tens of millions of passengers, and because the commander-in-chief, deputy commander and most of the senior officers of the fleet are already fighting against the Kroot One after another, they sacrificed one after another, and their management fell into chaos for a while.

It took us several Terra Standard days to suppress all the chaos and riots, and once again set up a management system: thanks to the Ultramarines, we really learned a lot of useful things in the five hundred worlds.

After crossing the Damocles sector with no hope, they finally decided to explore eastward with us in search of a new habitable world.

Everything is going well, but the only problem is: they lost too much material in the battle with the aliens, and the materials carried by the 102nd Fleet are just a drop in the bucket for tens of millions of colonists. Temporarily extend the rationing system to the entire fleet.

Finally, after encountering the warp space storm, about No.60 Tara standard days, we set off again. Since the fleet size has expanded several times, and the warp space has once again fallen into turmoil, As a result, the 102nd Fleet made very slow progress.

In the next forty Tara standard days, we only found three barren worlds that barely reached the habitable level, and the food on them was only a drop in the bucket. On the [-]th Tara standard day after the storm, The rationing system was once again upgraded, which caused riots on many ships, and some serious corruption problems began to emerge.

On the 120th Tara standard day, there are still not enough food sources.

On the 147th Terra Standard Day, an unusually serious riot occurred on the transport ship [Hausin], which completely damaged the ship, and the management on the ship was slaughtered before we could provide support. , we can only destroy this dangerous ship held by the insurgents as a deterrent.

After this incident, we learned this lesson and distributed all the combat brothers in several important hubs of the fleet to ensure support and communication when necessary.

On the 162nd Terra standard day, when [Scary] and [Nether] were supplying supplies in a desolate world, they fell together due to aging equipment. It was also on this day that the number of people who died of starvation reached 7000 people every day. .

On the 189th Terra standard day, the entire fleet was trapped in an absolutely desolate galaxy due to the barrier of the subspace storm. The material distribution system was changed again. Only the frontline workers could get enough supplies. Our first attempt Directly supervise and manage the material distribution process.

On the 192nd Tara Standard Day, hunger reached a peak, more than 2 people starved to death on this day, large-scale dissatisfaction spread on many ships, and we publicly executed a group of The embezzlers we found out in the middle of the day and opened up part of the rationing, the effect is very obvious.

The next day, the subspace storm finally subsided, and the fleet was able to jump and move in the subspace again.

On the 212th Terra Standard Day, when we were passing through a giant gaseous world, we discovered that there were some kind of aliens in this world that could not navigate through the void. , a unified military country, and no communication is possible.

After an internal meeting, I led four hundred warriors and hundreds of thousands of mortal volunteers to conduct a landing operation, obtained a large amount of supplies, and inflicted great damage on these aliens: their food and themselves Same, dry and hard to swallow, and some parts are poisonous, but the arrival of this batch of supplies still has an extremely obvious soothing effect on the hearts of the people of each ship.

On the 223rd Terra Standard Day, during a subspace transition, the large armed colonial ship [Qiuju] in the fleet failed to keep up with the large army due to a sudden engine failure, and disappeared into the subspace. Also joined were the 25 battle-brothers on that ship.

On the 225th Terra Standard Day, supplies have once again become scarce, and the harsh distribution system has led to growing dissatisfaction, but in the past period, we have picked enough from the various fleets to be loyal to Warriors of the Empire, all mortal weapons concentrated in their hands, guided and supervised by battle-brothers.

On the 230th Terra Standard Day, an armed transport ship [Jurten] from the Starfield of Storms had a disturbance. Captain Eugen quickly suppressed it, showing excellent ability and loyalty. , we decided to promote Eugene to mortal management.

On the 242nd Terra standard day, more than [-]% of the immigration ships had riots and protests.

On the 245th Terra standard day, except for the ships directly controlled by the battle brothers, the order on all the immigrant ships was on the verge of collapse.

On the 247th Terra Standard Day, the supplies have been completely depleted, and most of the circulation devices have been scrapped to the point where the mechanical priest said it was impossible to repair.

248th Terra Standard Day...

249nd……

th...

……

……

……

252nd Terra Standard Day.

land!

world!

A liveable world!
------

The throne is upon us.

On the 252nd Terra standard day of this long march, we finally found a star large enough to live on.

This is really a blessing in misfortune: due to the damage caused by the first battle of Kroot, our advance distance in the next two hundred days could not even catch up with our more than 50 days of exploration before the war, but fortunately, we finally found a piece of land.

This is a livable world, a huge and vast livable world. In the void, you can clearly observe the flowing water resources and large vegetation: what they symbolize is exactly what we need most now.

According to the observation and deduction of the mechanical priest accompanying the army, this world should have low gravity, as well as large areas of grasslands and deserts, and its natural environment is sufficient to support the emergence and reproduction of large-scale organisms and large-scale biological communities.

Without any hesitation, an advance party of mortal militia landed and explored the world: thanks to this timely discovery, discontent among the fleet has turned into outright carnival, and we have even observed some ships The phenomenon of spontaneous worship of the Emperor appeared in the world.

After about two Terra Standard Hours, the advance team sent back a message: This world is indeed suitable for colonization and habitation. Although it is generally hot and deserted, there are a considerable number of wild animals.

After another Terra standard, the first settlers began preparing to land.

That night, fifty simple but strong strongholds were established in the valley and on the hillside. I ordered all the immigration teams to keep a relatively close state to ensure that they could support each other in case of danger.

And almost at the same time I issued this order, the first casualty appeared.

When the mortal militia sent to the mountains for exploration and reconnaissance were hunting a group of hoofed quadruped creatures, they accidentally encountered a group of native creatures that were also hunting: maybe they were disturbed by the gunshots, or maybe it was the aliens. The chopsticks were naturally hostile. The militiamen walking at the front were attacked by them, and the head without sufficient protection was hit accurately by a stone. Before being sent to the rear stronghold, he was already dead.

Half an hour later, the combat brothers stationed at the stronghold led five hundred heavily armed militiamen to find the creature's lair. They killed more than a hundred of these creatures and transported them all back to the stronghold.

On the 253rd Terra standard day, when I just set foot on the surface of this [Dawn Star], I saw the corpse of this unique native creature.

Their appearance, body shape and external body organs have many disturbing similarities with humans. The skin is blue, with mature fingers and feet that look like ungulates, but They have no nose, just a strange vertical gouging.

Their bodies are very thin, perhaps due to the low gravity of this world, and after the mechanical priests accompanying the army inspected the corpses and habitats of these creatures, most of them said contemptuously that they were just a group of creatures that could not even Beasts that make fire, only a few Reza scholars who have studied biology have a slight interest in these native species. According to their observations and inferences, these creatures have a rare possibility of developing civilization in the next 1 years .

But this does not prevent them from being backward and barbaric now: they don't know how to use flames, and they don't know how to use the roughest polish, and most of them haven't even finished walking upright. Apes are more than people.

But what's interesting is that this species occupies an extremely dominant position in this world. We can't even find their natural enemies or other large carnivores, but this kind of humanoid native creatures have an extremely surprising number.

Of course, I don't care about these. What I pay most attention to now is to rest and reorganize the fleet, and then find a way to return to the empire.

And at this time, Major General Eugen, as a representative of the mortal militia, met with me together with the mortal leaders we personally selected, and made a suggestion to me.

In view of the fact that there is not much food left in the fleet, and a large amount of food and nutrition are needed for the development of territories and colonization activities, these mortal leaders believe that these blue-skinned creatures can be hunted and exterminated in an organized way.

Anyway, this place already belongs to the territory of the empire, and there is absolutely no need for these aliens to exist.

Of course, even if they didn't say it, my battle-brothers would have told me that just last night, smoke was rising from every stronghold, and maybe hundreds of blue-skinned creatures like this had entered the mortals' camps. Belly, which is hardly a drop in the bucket for their sheer numbers.

In a short period of time, these blue-skinned humanoids can indeed greatly relieve the food pressure of the fleet: so what is there to hesitate?
Following my nod, the mortals showed reassuring smiles, and as a means of showing intimacy, I took over the crispy, tender meat of the blue-skinned creature.

Ok……

Titanium is delicious.

(End of this chapter)