Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1018 09.1017: 'New Hope'

From inside the infirmary came the urgent voice of a medical nun.

Exhausted, the court official looked into the medical room; she already knew what was happening inside.

She carefully handed the injured sister, who was being carried on her shoulder, to another sister behind her, and then quickly went inside.

“You’ve come at the right time, sisters! Quick! Help me out!” Louise was accompanied by only one medical nun.

She was frantically taking care of Louise, who was in labor.

Originally, she was almost at her due date.

Arabella expects to give birth within the next week or two.

However, the violent shaking of the warships during the firefight stimulated this process.

Amidst waves of intense abdominal pain, Louise's lower abdomen was stained crimson with blood.

As a soldier, she endured the excruciating pain and tried her best to maintain her last shred of dignity, only gasping for breath as she explained her condition to the medical nun beside her.

Amidst the deafening roar of laser guns, the howling of chainsaws, and the thunder of macro cannons, a new life is about to be born.

"Sisters, please hold this up for me. The baby is in the wrong position; it's lying sideways."

The medical nun realized something was wrong.

The baby, which should have been born naturally in the correct position, may have turned sideways in the abdomen due to the violent shaking caused by the battleships being hit.

This requires emergency manual intervention during delivery; otherwise, both mother and child would be in danger of death.

“But…” Court official Diana looked at her power gauntlets, stained red with the blood of her enemies, and said hesitantly.

But soon, Louise's painful gasps interrupted her hesitation.

She quickly wiped the blood off her fingernails with a disinfectant wipe, knelt on one knee, and placed her cold, silver hands below Louise's abdomen, ready to deliver the baby.

The medical nun first injected a large dose of analgesia into Louise's spine using a spinal syringe.

"Uh..." Although it looks gruesome, this is the most advanced painless childbirth technique in the hands of the Holy Rose Sisters, designed to reduce the pain of expectant mothers.

Then, she began to carefully adjust the baby's position with skillful and gentle movements.

Soon, a loud "waa waa" cry echoed throughout the entire medical pod.

"Caught it." The official carefully and gently caught the smooth newborn.

The blood that remained in the crevices of her fingernails, which she hadn't completely wiped away, accidentally seeped onto the child's face, staining his tender cheeks with a scarlet hue reminiscent of battle.

The dignified court official appeared somewhat flustered, hurriedly wiping away the bloodstains she had accidentally gotten on her.

This new life, from the moment it was born, was stained with the blood of war.

"Captain, the baby has been born, and both mother and child are safe." The medical nun, looking at the baby's beautiful purple eyes that had inherited the mother's features, immediately connected to the communications channel and reported to the bridge, "Have you chosen a name for the child yet?"

"..."

There was no immediate reply from the other end of the sound array, but instead came a deep, labored breathing sound, as if the person had used up all their strength.

"May I speak with Louise for a moment?"

"Ok."

The nun handed the communicator to Louise.

"It's me," she said weakly, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.

"You've worked hard. The battle... is over. We won."

"You too, you've worked so hard. Our...our baby has been born, it's a boy."

What name do you want to give him?

"How about we call him Albert?"

Horatio took the only undamaged elevator on the bridge to the relatively safe captain's cabin. As he strode down the spiral staircase leading to the cabin, he asked, "Is there any story behind this name?"

"My hometown is Sun City in Cadia. To its west lies the vast Alicia Desert, and to its south, there is a small forest."

We locals call it the 'Albe Forest.' That forest means to us life, water, food, and... hope."

Louise watched as the courtier carefully wrapped the baby in clean swaddling clothes and placed the infant into her arms, and whispered, "I hope he can be our hope."

dong dong.

Horatio pushed open the door and entered, much to Louise's surprise.

“Then let’s call him Albert.” A relieved smile finally appeared on his haggard, blood-stained face: “Welcome to this world, my child, our new hope.”
-
After a hard-fought battle, the Imperial Allied Forces finally held a crucial anchor point on the defensive line—Minerva, the storage world that supported the entire line. Ground forces, after suffering heavy casualties, completely wiped out the invading Severus rebels, the Dark Eldar, and the opportunistic Greenskins.

The newly formed Imperial Navy orbital landing force also gained their first valuable combat experience in this baptism of blood and fire.

However, this newly formed force is still incomplete, and due to the complex political situation in Sintira, its future recruitment and training base has not yet received formal approval from the Calicus Military Affairs Department. The future is uncertain and its prospects remain unclear.

In Minerva's orbit, the wreckage of the warship floated silently in the void, like a new asteroid belt.

Pilot Anya Fasha led her squadron slowly through these cold steel tombs, confirming the results of the battle.

Finally, the sharp-eyed Fasha discovered a hand, wearing a gold thumb ring with the Roman head of Aurelian Pompeii Severus, curled up due to "freeze-drying," next to a broken piece of the fresco window that once belonged to the bridge of the "Pride of the Duke."

This is the only piece of human tissue that could be found among the remains he left behind.

The Severan Empire has lost its best chief military commander.

This news was a devastating blow to the rebellious Duke Severus XIII.

He was forced to assume the supreme command of the army himself. He may have been a genius at manipulating power, court intrigue, and inciting the masses, but his military talent was worlds apart from that of his cousin Pompey.

General Nansuti received orders from the Calicus Military Department to march on the homeland of the rebellious duchy, together with the conservative forces.

Brigadier General Rana, due to his valiant fighting in this campaign and the decisive results achieved in the ground battle, was promoted to Major General of the Star Forces at the nomination of General Nansutti, and took over the 5th Corps previously commanded by the late Major General Leclerc, becoming its new commander.

After this battle, Sintira's conservatives and military reformists completely broke off relations.

Both sides made new changes at the same time. First, the conservatives in Sintira officially called themselves the "Sintira Noble Army" and, with the authorization of the Ministry of Military Affairs, renamed the "Sintira Flintlock Regiment" to the "Sintira Royal Flintlock Regiment" to highlight their noble status.

In response, Sintira's military reformists renamed their faction the "Sintira Republican Guard" and their flintlock regiments the "Battle Flintlock Regiment".

In order to differentiate himself from the conservatives and to save on the high costs of clothing, Major General Rana proposed modifications to the military uniform.

Their flintlock musketeers no longer wore luxurious gold ornaments and ostentatious, difficult-to-maintain mink fur tricorn hats, but instead adopted a style inspired by Horatio's battleship guards, equipped with inner terracotta helmets and outer breathable saco caps made of synthetic fibers.

From then on, anyone could easily distinguish between the two sides' troops by using tricorn hats and top caps.

However, the two armies remain nominally allies, both under the unified command of the Sintira Military Department and loyal to the human lord on the Golden Throne.

On the surface of Minerva, many soldiers from the 13th Dragoon Brigade, returning from the front lines, reunited with their families who had been stranded on the planet due to the war.

They embraced each other with tears in their eyes. Many Polabereans who were forced to flee due to the great catastrophe decades ago were reunited with their families after being separated for many years by joining the army.

Among them was the mother and daughter with horse ears, a trait characteristic of the Polaberia, whom Horatio had rescued from the Dark Eldar on a transport ship.

Her husband was a high-ranking sergeant under Poniatovsky, a bugler and messenger for the dragoons.

Horatio kept his promise.

He commissioned the accountant Yin Shuyao to compile a detailed roster of the troops and, in the name of the Imperial Navy, officially registered the citizenship of all officers and soldiers of the orbital landing force within the roster with the Ministry of the Interior.

Faced with this insignificant request from the Imperial Navy, which holds the reins of the sector's rule and ensures the safety of interstellar transport, the Ministry of the Interior of the Calissis Sector did not make things too difficult, but it also did not pay too much attention to it. As always, it simply threw it into the cumbersome and time-consuming approval process.

Horatio was so forced to once again entrust They and the bigwigs of the Callisis fleet to "pull some strings" in order to finally get his promise fulfilled.

Although, for the massive Ministry of the Interior, the mere hundred thousand or so "imperial citizens" were completely dispensable in the empire's population, which was often in the trillions.

But for these ordinary people, those with horse ears that are different from ordinary people, this is of great significance—they have officially obtained what is called "human rights".

From this moment forward, they will officially become citizens of the Empire, protected by the Imperial Code, and enjoying the rights and obligations due to citizens.

No one could ever again be as cruel to them as they were to demi-humans, exploiting them without restraint.

They also officially gained the sacred right to take up arms and fight as warriors of the God-Emperor for the God-Emperor, for humanity, and for their families.

Above the void portal of the Whirlwind Line, the Greenskins' wave was temporarily unable to break through the Whirlwind Line and rush into the core area of ​​Calithis, heading straight for Sintira, due to the resolute resistance of the Imperial Navy, the Blackmane Dalian of the Space Wolves, the Holy War Army of the Saint Drusus Order, and the Pioneer Fleet of the Martian Mechanicus.

However, all of this is only temporary.

In the Calissis sector, an increasing number of diviners, heretical witches, savage prophets, and even self-proclaimed divinely inspired state priests are uncontrollably spreading a terrifying prophecy: "When the month of the tyrant arrives, all living beings will perish."

The pressure on law enforcement in the Calissis sector is unprecedented.

There is a wolf in front and a tiger behind.

Beset by internal turmoil and external threats, it remains to be seen what even more terrifying upheavals and challenges this ancient star sector, which guards the gateway to the Eye of Fear, will face.

But Horatio already sensed an ominous premonition through the terrifying, fragmented images brought forth by the "Omen Fragments."

He and his troops will face the most difficult and dangerous challenge since they entered the void.

These people, who have just gained citizenship and are filled with boundless expectations and visions for a bright future, do not know how long their current joy and happiness will last.

(End of this chapter)