Emperor's Bane

Chapter 924 The Last Hunt
"Kharak has fallen."

“The same is true for Maximlin.”

"The garrison at Vadanburg sent out its last communication less than three hours ago."

"And then there's Safrania: they claim to have witnessed the Vengeful Spirit attacking them."

"The Spirit of Vengeance? Wasn't it already sunk?"

"Perhaps it's another ship they didn't recognize: the War General certainly has more than one Glory Queen under his command."

"Is it really appropriate to still call him War General?"

"Perhaps calling him Horus or the Wolf God would be more appropriate?"

"It doesn't matter: no one is qualified to strip Horus of his title of Warmaster anyway."

“Yes, even the Macado and the High Lords haven’t thought of doing this: they still call them War Marshals.”

"He's just a rebellious war commander."

……

When a warship starts to get busy, its first impression is simply: noisy.

This was especially true of the Glorious Queen.

Whether in the engine room, on the lower deck, the upper deck, the naval inventory, or even the command platform, every component of a warship has its own unique cacophony during wartime: either the chilling roar of the subspace engines scraping through the void, or the foul language of violent naval officers whipping soldiers or slaves.

Lemanrus particularly disliked the orderly noise on the command deck.

As the Primarch slumped on his throne, he would see countless mortals and soldiers in the workbench and corridors, some loudly announcing yet another new message, others whispering among themselves about the latest secrets: these private conversations were the most direct reflection of the morale of the mortal servants in the Legion.

But no matter the volume of the conversation, to the naturally sensitive Primarch, it was no different from shouting in his ear. He had to passively listen to hundreds or thousands of useful or useless messages, filtering their usefulness by the second, and filtering out noises that might be harmful to his brain, such as the hymns chanted by the Technicians.

Ultimately, why did they place the Mechanicus' stronghold on a command platform so close to the Primarch's throne?
The loudspeaker was even pointed directly at him?

Lemanrus was always tormented by the question of how to answer it, but he dared not transfer these people to other places: the hymns of multi-machine tuning were indeed the best way to get the subspace reactor of the Herakfinl burning with stable efficiency, and his wolf slaves always messed up this simple thing.

Right now, what Lemanrus needs least is for unexpected events to occur.

After all, he had already faced enough unexpected events.

"So, Black Mane Dalian still hasn't responded?"

Lemanrus sat up straighter on his throne, his gaze sweeping across the star map before him. The entire jurisdiction of the Fenris Governorate was encompassed by a finely detailed star sector map, marked with azure lines and symbols. However, on the Wolf King's rugged face, a crimson light now shimmered, and his fangs were tinged with pink as they flickered.

"Blackmane Dalian's most recent reply indicates that their main fleet is currently in the Targosta system."

A wolf lord walked up to Lemanrus.

"And considering that this galaxy is very close to the Saravenia galaxy, which has already been attacked by Shadowmoon Wolf, Blackmane Dalian has most likely been drawn into the war."

The Wolf King did not reply. His gaze swept across that corner of the star map. The fortress system called Sarafonia had been dyed red by the Shadow Moon Wolf, as had the other twelve neighboring systems.

And this was only a small part of the war frenzy unleashed by Warmaster Horus: the various invading fleets of Shadowmoon Wolves, which had been detected, were like a giant mouth, recklessly invading Fenris's territory from several angles. Hundreds of star systems and outposts were attacked, and the vast majority of them did not survive the first day.

It's either fight to the death or surrender: the latter is more likely.

In some of the most extreme circumstances, even those inland worlds reported being invaded by the Shadowmoon Wolf fleet. Lemanrus's men initially thought it was just a hoax or a false alarm, until more than fifty similar distress signals arrived. They then realized that the scope of the war was not limited to their imagination, and that the Warmaster's claws were far sharper than expected.

Some of the invaded inland worlds and the actual front lines of the Space Wolves are separated by more than a dozen star systems, with countless fortified worlds and outposts scattered throughout. However, these fertile lands, which are theoretically under heavy protection, were besieged without warning. Lemanrus didn't even dare to think about what was going on, and he felt that he didn't need to figure out the answer.

The betrayal was expected.

I just didn't expect it to be so huge.

His plan seems to be working well: Horus has indeed spent a lot of effort on him.

"How long has it been since we received our first report of Horus's invasion, Yorin?"

As the Wolf King stared at the star map that vividly depicted the devastating situation—any corner of it could trigger Guilliman's petty heart disease and cardiovascular disease simultaneously—he turned to his most trusted Fenris warrior and posed a question.

"Forty Terra Standard Time".

Yolin glanced at the time.

"Forty hours?"

Ruth's fingers rubbed the shaft of the Dionysian Spear so hard it made your teeth ache.

He smiled and then reached out to touch the shattered frontline deployment map in front of him.

"In other words, in forty hours, Horus has crushed my first line of defense, more than twenty outpost worlds have been completely wiped out, and less than one-tenth of the patrol fleet has managed to escape back to the rear: he has not only conquered the three outermost star sectors, but has even begun to penetrate deep into our territory."

"Even the Fenris sector has started reporting enemy activity involving Shadowmoon Wolves."

"At this rate, Horus's own fleet will arrive in Fenris in ten days at most."

"And in ten days, his vanguard fleet will crush Rogdorn's first line of defense: I did not give the Imperial Fist a short time."

"We need to hold them off for at least a month, or maybe two."

Strangely, despite recounting the defeats suffered by his legion and kingdom, Lemanrus's face showed little sign of despair. The Wolf Lords surrounding him and the warriors further afield also seemed unfazed by the war: Lemanrus's performance was enough to bolster the morale of the Sixth Legion.

"Excuse my bluntness, Primarch."

Yolin stepped forward.

"I don't think that thing you deployed on the outermost edge can be called a defensive line."

"Why do you say that?"

"They're not one of us at all."

It was clear that the wolf king really wanted to spit on the deck floor, but he held back.

"The disloyalty of the governors of those outpost worlds has long been obvious, and those fleet commanders were bought off by Horus decades ago. The Shadowmoon Wolf Legion did not break through this line at all; they were merely conducting a victory parade or taking over operations: forty hours is already a lot."

"..."

The wolf king paused for a moment.

"Do you think this is my fault, Yolin?"

"Was I too dismissive?"

"I wouldn't dare say that."

Although he said that, Yorin's act of turning his head away revealed his true thoughts.

"After all, I suggested to you many years ago that you strengthen the monitoring of the outer defense line."

“If each outpost in the world could have hundreds of loyal hunter warriors stationed there, things wouldn’t be like this.”

"Yes."

The wolf king tapped his fingers on the stone surface.

“I can deploy thousands of space wolves across more than twenty frontier worlds, and then Horus will devour them piece by piece while they are isolated and helpless.”

“This is not a grand expedition, Jorin. In a full-scale conflict between the two legions, a few hundred Astartes holding the line are of no use whatsoever: Horus only needs to destroy all the fleets in near-Earth orbit and then leave a strike cruiser to oversee the entire system, rendering thousands of Astartes warriors useless.”

The wolf lord fell silent.

He was reckless, but not stupid: true fools don't live to adulthood on Fenris.

"So what do you think we should do?"

When his Wolf Lords began to humbly ask questions, Lemanrus did not rush to answer. Instead, his gaze was focused on something further away: a powerful legion fleet was advancing toward this nameless star system. Six Wolf Lords and their packs had already answered the Primarch's call, bringing their warriors and warships to Lemanrus. Hundreds of gray ships were anchored in the shadow of the star. From an inconspicuous metallic silver dot in the distance to the massive battleships that resembled space fortresses nearby, Lemanrus was gradually grasping every bit of power he needed next.

Logically speaking, forty hours is absolutely not enough time to gather such a huge force, but the Wolf King has not wasted his time in the past few decades: through close cooperation with the sister in the Far East, he has successfully obtained a technology that can guide subspace routes. Although it is not very stable overall, it is enough to support the rapid mobilization of the Space Wolf Legion.

Within the entire jurisdiction of the Fenris Governor's Palace, Lemanrus designed a total of thirteen assembly star systems. Using the technology he obtained from Morgan, each Wolf Lord's fleet could directly reach these star systems in the shortest possible time, thereby achieving the fastest possible assembly of the legion's main force.

The only two drawbacks of this technology are that its stability is extremely low, with problems occurring in three out of every five large-scale jumps on average, and its scope of influence is too small, as the technology to achieve direct jumps in large-scale space has not yet been developed. This is why Morgan has always kept it shelved.

But Ruth did not have such concerns.

The Wolf King stood up and strode forward, with the warriors and servants on both sides bowing in salute. The Primarch finally reached the widest window of the command platform, where thousands of eyes followed the every move of this imperial son, whispering and trying to figure out his attitude. The Wolf King himself was also thinking, but he was thinking about all the cards he could play.

As expected, Horus's long-standing infiltration efforts have indeed had an irreparable impact on the mobilization of the Space Wolf Legion. Although this impact is mainly concentrated on the mortal armies and fleets, the Lemanrus hunting pack itself has also been affected.

The wolves don't need to worry about loyalty, but they are still subject to interference: of all thirteen companies under Lemanrus's command, apart from the Fenris Champion Company far away on Betangamon Star, three other companies are unable to respond to the Wolf King's call in time, which is a great loss for the Sixth Legion.

Among them, Mokai's son Dalian and Blackmane Dalian were drawn into the war with Shadowmoon Wolves before they could respond to the call because they were too close to the front line. The situation of Dragon Slayer Dalian was even stranger. Theoretically, they were located in the rear, the furthest from the war, but they did not respond to Lemanrus's summons for a long time.

But the Wolf King wasn't too worried, because Dalian, the Dragon Slayer, was the safest location. It was right next to the border between the Space Wolves and Holy Terra. Apart from the Rogdorhn defense zone, its territory only had one other port directly under the Holy Terra Highlord Council: the Imperial Navy fleet port called the Belis Crown District Base. The commander there, Asir, was a veteran who had fought in the entire Great Crusade, and his command ability and loyalty were beyond question.

Compared to that, Lemanrus felt that his situation might be even worse.

To be conservative, he could only lead nine large armies to confront Horus's main force.

Nine Dalians: He disliked this number; it always gave the Wolf King a chilling feeling, as if he were being manipulated by some unseen hostility. "Do you know why I chose to hand over a large portion of the front lines to Horus?"

After Yolin stood beside him, Lemanrus watched as the Storm Wolves' fleet poured into his field of vision from Mandeville, while absentmindedly chatting with his wolf lords.

"To conserve manpower, but it should be more than that."

Jorin's gaze seemed to be drawn to the Dionysian Spear that Lemanrus held tightly in his palm.

"There is another reason."

Leman Russ smiled.

"That was a simple psychological game."

"Between me and Horus."

“I know Horus. Given my brother, the wolf god, and his naturally cautious nature, even if I were to hand over the entire kingdom of Fenris to him, he would never feel at ease occupying this land if he failed to defeat the main force of my legion in a single battle. He would think that I was always hiding in the shadows, waiting to find a moment when he was lax, and then pierce his heart from behind.”

"To be honest, I've never really understood where Horus's powerful victim mentality comes from."

"Or rather, Horus didn't really like me when we first met: I don't know why."

The wolf king stroked his chin, recalling the brotherhood meeting that took place nearly two hundred years ago.

Normally speaking, he was indeed the first brother Horus encountered after his return.

But Horus did not like him.

That Wolf Shepherd God...

Did he really think Ruth hadn't heard him whispering in the Emperor's ear, wanting to destroy his Fenris?

Now he finally got his chance.

The wolf king bared his canines.

"Therefore, no matter how well he does his intelligence gathering work in the early stages, the Wolf God will definitely seek to engage in a decisive battle with me involving the main force of his legion. This will become an advantage for me: as long as my main force of the legion is not affected by the War General's first attack, I will have enough time to mobilize you. At that time, it will be up to me to decide when to launch the main force battle."

"In other words, I don't need to know Horus's every move in great detail. I just need to be able to detect when he launches an attack. On the contrary, what I need most is a means to quickly assemble all the main forces of the Space Wolves legions, and to prevent my wolf packs from having to fight individually at the beginning of the war. And now, I have successfully avoided both of these things."

"Therefore, the initiative has been taken over by me."

"I have gathered all the strength of the Sixth Legion as much as possible. Next, I will fight a real war with the Shadowmoon Wolf Legion. This is the best situation I can achieve. Compared to being wiped out in batches in a series of fortress sieges and defenses that we are not good at, or having my wolf lords fight individually, this kind of all-out war can bring us more benefits."

"..."

Yolin, the werewolf lord of Dalian, the thirteenth werewolf under Lemanrus, simply listened quietly as his genetic father recounted his plan. Afterward, he used a short silence to demonstrate his own thinking.

"Excuse my bluntness: how can you be so sure that you have the initiative in the war?"

“Not sure.”

The wolf king shook his head bluntly.

"This is the best outcome I could achieve."

Then, he looked directly into the eyes of his most trusted gang leader with his icy blue eyes.

"Do you think our massive gathering here can be kept secret from Horus and his legions? Believe me, the Wolf God will even know we have the technology for rapid assembly: you can't imagine how powerful the serpent beside him is, and the Warmaster himself is also looking forward to a war. He will keep a close eye on our gathering and direction of advance, and then he will meet our challenge in the most advantageous position for him."

"He will set ambushes, deploy spies, and use every means to achieve victory with minimal cost."

"And this is our opportunity."

The wolf king gripped his spear tightly.

"Horus is too hesitant and sentimental. He always craves a perfect victory and always hopes to pay as little as possible. He lacks the conviction to win at all costs. Or rather, before he decides to fight with all his might to win the war, the wolf god will go through a long period of reflection."

"He always had too many concerns, wanting to achieve the goals of ten wars with one victory."

"But I won't think that much about it."

“At the start of the battle, I will not be swayed by any of Shepherd God’s plans: I will ignore his ambushes or traitors, I will send the Herakfinl straight to Shepherd God’s flagship, and your fleet will be responsible for transporting me there. I will use this weapon in my hand to stab my brother to the ground, capture him alive or make him confront his own conscience.”

“I must admit to you, Jolin, this is not a plan with a high success rate.”

“I am very likely unable to kill him, because even with the artifacts bestowed upon me by my father, I am not confident that I can defeat Horus. Of all the Primarchs, he is one of the four I am not confident that I can defeat: Horus is an opponent like Sangilius, Morgan and that man, all of whom are terrifying monsters.”

"As for you, you are very likely to be wiped out in this military adventure of mine. The Horus fleet will be at least four or even five times the size of mine. I don't know how many traitors and trump cards he still has hidden, but based on my understanding of him, he will not be unprepared. This is very likely the last hunt for all Fenris warriors. This time, the enemy I have ordered you to face will be more terrifying than the unfamiliar and dangerous ones we encountered in the Great Expedition."

"Of course, I have prepared ways to save your lives."

"But you know, not everyone survives."

"..."

"You are our Primarch."

Yolin spat on the floor; he looked like he'd wanted to do it for a long time.

“We are your offspring, and we will follow you to the very throat of Mokai.”

(Mokai: The Grim Reaper in Fenris legend.)
The wolf king smiled, his pupils flashing with an exciting, wild light.

"Even if this sounds like a purge aimed at Fenris: to put those Normans in power?"

When confronted by the Primarch's question, the werewolf lord simply shrugged indifferently.

"Okay, if you ask me what I think about your decision to preserve those Norman recruits?"

"All I can say is that these unlucky guys missed out on one of the greatest hunts in the history of the wolf pack."

"How many hunters will have the chance in their lifetime to hunt a Primarch and his entire army?"

"Even if we return to Mokai, we can still proudly record Horus and his Shadowmoon Wolf on our prey list."

“Those Normans will never have this opportunity.”

Jorin bared his fangs: the Wolf Lord, known among all Fenris for being the most radical, reckless, and hostile to the Norman New Army, gave an answer that represented all the elders of Fenris.

"Therefore, Primarch, I have no other answer."

"I don't care whether those Normans will take over the legion's authority and destiny after this battle."

"To be honest, they are pretty good soldiers, and it's not shameful to make them the flag bearers of the Space Wolves."

"Personally, I would have preferred it to be free of those Normans during the great hunt to come."

"We can make a huge scene without any restraint."

“We will follow in your footsteps and create a blood-red massacre that will make even the gods weep.”

"We will feast in the clouds at dusk, and our story will be told in the annals of Fenris millions of years from now."

"When those Normans are writing the epics of the legions, recording the names of me and my company: let them weep with envy for my glorious end."

"They will never have that chance."

"You're still the same bastard as ever, Yolin."

"There's nothing I can do: what can I do when I'm the hunter in the entire legion who most resembles you?"

"roll!"

Lemanrus laughed heartily, kicking and punching the equally smiling Wolf Lord aside. Then, with pride plastered on his serious face, he watched as the last Wolf Lord and his fleet arrived to join him. Behind the Primarch, Jorin naturally announced to all his colleagues and brothers what they were about to do, and the frenzied howls and oaths drove the entire deck into a frenzy.

"Has the Crimson Moon arrived as well?"

"Yes: and there's also good news, Primarch."

"We have finally received communication from Black Mane in Dalian."

"They have determined that the enemy they are fighting is part of Horus's main fleet."

"The Warmaster is eager to engage your hunting party, Primarch."

"It's truly hard to refuse such kindness."

Lemanrus extended his spear toward the holographic map, the tip pointing directly at a bright star, motionless as if it were supporting the map.

"Then let's go!"

"Pass on my order: the fleet shall set sail and prepare for a long voyage in the High Heavens."

"At the same time, we must also make full preparations for battle."

"Let's go and meet my wolf brothers."

"I hope he will like the gift I prepared for him."

(End of this chapter)