Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 351 The Knight Veroni's Miraculous Journey
In December 841, the second moon of planet III in the Dametus system.

High King Jacques Veroni looked up at the emerald sky, where ribbons of color glided across it.

As a satellite, the Knight's home planet is illuminated by the reflected light of the gas giant it orbits, giving it a bright emerald green hue.

Jacques' eyes were filled with rage. He knew that as the Mitu people he had thrown down landed, another noble fortress would be reduced to ruins.

His eldest son, Gios, spoke through the communicator: "Father, we only have about two hundred Knight Mechs left."

Jacques felt the sadness rising within the machine spirit, and his heart was filled with desolation.

His family once owned six hundred knight mechs, but now that number is only a third of that.

Jacques already sensed that the Vironi Knights were on the verge of destruction.

Their supplies were almost exhausted, and not a single fortress in the entire Dametus remained intact.

Jacques' mind raced through memories of the glory that once belonged to Veroni.

The Dametus system is the intersection of several small but stable subspace routes, attracting colonists to this world. They used the shell of the exploration colony ark to build a magnificent fortress—Evil Cloud Fortress.

The colonists soon discovered that the entire world was ruled by alien beings who called themselves gods and demanded that the newcomers submit.

The Age of War began, and the Knights of Veroni fought for decades against the vile creatures that fed on them, relying on the standard construction template of Evil Cloud Keep.

The battle between the two sides boiled the swampy sea, scorched the vine-covered forest, and turned the verdant sky into night.

Finally, the knights defeated or drove large numbers of hybrid cephalopods and mammals to the deepest, most remote wilderness.

For the next five thousand years, the Vironian Knights steadfastly resisted countless invasions.

There are both unheard-of aliens and infamous, familiar enemies: savage orcs and Eldar slave hunters.

But of all the invaders, none was more terrifying than the Mitu alien.

Throughout the centuries of resistance, generations of knights died.

They refused to yield to the aliens, and even in the most dilapidated ruins where a single person remained, the nobles would not break their oath and allow the Mitu to carry out their cruel purges.

Jacques listened intently to the voice of Lone Zero, and the soul of the Knight Mech roared in greeting to him.

Despite its scars and lack of maintenance, it will still meet its end in glory.

During the long and bloody resistance, each knight mech experienced the death of its master countless times, which gave Dametus's mech spirit a unique temperament, both combative and melancholic.

Dametus' knights were inevitably affected, becoming lonely and strong.

Each nobleman bestowed upon their knightly mechs a name imbued with a unique and sorrowful quality.

Jacques's knight mech is called Lone Zero, symbolizing the solitary resistance against the brutal aliens.

The High King gathered his thoughts and spoke into the communication network.

"Knights of Dametus, we are the last human survivors in this shattered galaxy."

"We will surely perish, but our oath will never be broken."

"Hold your ground and protect our people."

The lancer-type horned viper rider, Lone Zero, raised his left arm high, his charging lance spinning and roaring.

"Our oath is unbreakable!"

The number of responses from the communicator was less than the Supreme King had anticipated.

But he couldn't even continue searching for the number of surviving knights; he had already noticed the numbers flashing across his retina.

[Plasma reactor output power: 50.13%]

Jacques silently shut down the communicator. From now on, until his death, he would not need to make any further communications.

Just like this world sustained by solitude, he will face a glorious death in his solitary battle.

Jacques stroked the worn leather and cold metal of the Command Throne cockpit, then slapped it hard before bursting into laughter amidst the machine spirit's furious roar.

The sadness in his eyes vanished, replaced by a resolute gaze fixed ahead, where the strange vehicles and anemone-shaped, disgusting bodies of the Mitu people came into view.

Jacques' hands moved rapidly across the rune panel, the Lone Zero Machine Soul roared angrily, and the light cavalry Horned Knights charged forward.

Because their mechanical legs are longer than those of other knightly mechs, lancer knights are taller and faster.

The ion shield on the left hand of the Light Cavalry type is not based on a force field, but is a real shield. Secretary Dametus chose the Lancer type because when initially entering the dense forest to clear out wild beasts, he needed enhanced frontal melee defense.

The more important thing now is to conserve energy and address the severe supply shortage.

The speed of the lancers allows them to minimize the number of times they are attacked from a distance.

Jacques fired his last five ion cannonballs at the Mitu aliens with a deafening roar, accurately destroying five disc-shaped Mitu tanks.

He shut down the oracle, reserving the remaining energy for the power and weapons systems.

Charging into the midst of the Mitu people doesn't require precise aiming.

Lonely immediately crashed into the alien group. Jacques was relieved, as the impact lance could be used both at long range and in melee combat, just like the knight's lance from the ancient Terran era in his family's collection.

This prevented him from waiting helplessly for death due to a lack of ammunition; he could kill the alien hybrids before he died.

The lance slammed into several six-legged Mitu, the powerful impact turning them into a puddle of pus.

Disgusting slime splattered onto the mechanical body of Lone Zero.

The Lone Zero charged into the enemy ranks, crushing Mitu people wherever it went.

The Mitu people's chariots gleamed with strange light, and metal projectiles were launched and smashed towards Lonely Zero.

Jak raised his right arm, a shimmering ion shield protecting his head.

Despite the constant explosions around the Lonely Zero, Jacques continued to advance.

The plasma reactor output power is 49.34%.

The plasma reactor output power is 37.58%.

The beeping notifications buzzed in Jacques's mind, but he had no energy to pay attention to them; his vision was filled with the limbs of the sea anemones.

It wasn't until countless beams of light ricocheted off the Zero and it sensed the anger and pain from the machine's soul that Jacques realized the energy was so low that the plasma shield had to be shut down.

Despite being defenseless, Jak did not panic. He had already accepted the harsh reality, and only one thought remained in his mind: to kill as many Mito aliens as possible before he died.

Jacques raised his head and continued his charge with Veroni's aloof pride.

The Lonely One trembled, and wisps of smoke rose from its damaged mechanical shell.

It continued to struggle forward, its assault lance tearing apart the aliens in its path one by one.

Suddenly, Jacques saw a black aircraft rapidly approaching from about a kilometer ahead.

[The flying machines of the Mitu people?]
The Veroni knights on the battlefield also noticed the rapidly approaching flying formation in the sky.

They saw the machine guns spinning rapidly, spraying a dense barrage of bullets onto the ground.

Boom boom boom!
What was torn apart was not Veroni's tattered mech, but the Mitu people's disc chariots and their anemone bodies.

Nimrod spread his golden wings and leaped down before the Stormbird landed.

He looked down at the battlefield and then saw a group of knights struggling to move.

The Primarch's superhuman vision pieced together the complete pattern from the flags between the legs of dozens of knights.

Green flags, red background, painted white castle and crowned skull.

The crowned skull is the coat of arms of the Veroni family, and the white castle symbolizes the defense of Evil Cloud Castle.

[The Vironian Knights]

Just as I remember, they were on the verge of destruction.
The Primarch's eyes flickered with light and shadow, its telekinetic power extending like a giant hand as it grasped Mitu's circular chariot.

With a thought, he made the chariot spin rapidly like a disc.

The speed of the rotation increased, causing it to crash into other Mitu tanks.

Bang bang bang!
With a series of impacts, most of the chariots that were besieging the Knights of Veroni were destroyed.

The Knight Veroni, who had narrowly escaped death, stared in astonishment at the black-armored, golden-winged giant in the sky.

Ninglu slowly descended, casting his gaze upon Miguel Quasta, who stepped off the deck and raised the Heartforged Staff.

(End of this chapter)