Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 823 The Shadow of Order is More Powerful Than the Space Wolf and the Midnight Lord
On Andrews Main Planet, in Hive City Thirteen, thousands of people huddled in fear in the underground shelters of the Upper Hive.

Since the Emperor's glory spread to Andrews with the arrival of the expeditionary fleet, it has served as the Empire's main transit point and has never been attacked.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. The garrison has surely suppressed the rebellion.” A man who served as the supervisor of a water purification pool and worked for the Water Guild stood on a stack of crates, craning his neck to look out through the shelter’s only window that was above ground level.

Thick dust covered the windows. The foreman covered his mouth and nose with his left hand, pinched his right sleeve, and wiped the windows.

cough cough...

He squinted, peering through the scattered dust.

On the ground, the mother holding her child and the elderly woman with a full head of white hair all looked up at him, hoping to hear good news.

The foreman's pupils suddenly widened as he saw a guard with Imperial double-headed eagle epaulets on his shoulders, holding a laser gun.

zizi...

The sound of the beam ionizing the air was faint. Following the turbulence created by the beam in the air, the overseer saw that the beam had accurately hit a rebel covered in fluff.

The blinding light blasted a large hole in the rebel's chest.

"Well done!" He swung his arm forcefully.

The overseer cheered excitedly, putting the others in the shelter at ease and bringing smiles to their faces.

Suddenly, the overseer stopped waving his arm and stumbled and fell.

A retired elderly man from the power industry, his hair completely white, helped him up. "What happened?"

"Monster..." The overseer was still in a daze, not yet recovered from the terrifying sight he had seen.

The old man frowned and shook the man's shoulders forcefully.

"Calm down, tell us what you saw?"

“I…saw…they…the laser guns…couldn’t kill them.” The foreman’s eyes were lifeless.

“Some of the down was charred, but they are still walking.”

boom!
The shelter doors shook, and alarm lights flashed red warning symbols.

“They’re coming, and they’ll eat us all,” the overseer said desperately, plopping down on the ground.

“I heard they attacked some worlds on the edge of the star system, and the Space Wolves and the Midnight Lords have been hunting them down,” the clerk in the Voidport uniform said through his respirator.

"They are the Emperor's angels, so why didn't they kill all the monsters?" The wife of the merchant guild representative, wearing a silk nightgown and holding her child, asked, her body trembling.

"I don't know. Maybe they're as numerous as the Green Scorpions, so numerous that they can't kill them all, or maybe they're very difficult to kill..." The voice coming from the respirator was blank and ignorant.

The overseer sprang to his feet, staring in terror at the gate. "Ah... Rong... they're coming in..."

Everyone turned to look and saw wisps of fluff "sneaking" in through the crack in the door.

"We're doomed! We're going to be eaten by monsters!"

The wealthy businessman's wife hugged her child tightly, shrinking back as she retreated.

She had only taken a few steps back when she bumped into the person behind her.

She turned her head and saw that all around her were trembling people waiting for death.

She held her child tightly, feeling helpless. In the past, they had lived a comfortable life. Although they were not as wealthy as the noble lords of the Nest Tower, they were still well-fed and clothed and basked in the glory of the emperor and the human empire.

Now, they can only cower in the dark shelter, waiting to be eaten by monsters.

"He...is gone?" the foreman said uncertainly.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, only to find no lint or knocking sounds coming from the crack in the door.

"The Emperor's angels! It must be them!" The respirator trembled.

“I…let me see…” The overseer walked out of the crowd, trembling.

He shuffled step by step to the crate, clumsily climbed up, covered his mouth and nose, and dared not make a sound as he looked out. "Ugh..." The foreman's pupils dilated as he saw monsters covered in fluffy down pounce on a huge, furry creature.

He had never seen that creature before; it hadn't been there when he looked outside not long ago, as if it had appeared out of thin air.

The monster lay on top of the creature, its downy fibers surging wildly toward it as if something was drawing them in.

In the blink of an eye, the creature was filled.

After a while, it started to swell up, surrounded by clumps of fluff, round and plump, like a giant ball.

"What happened?" asked a retired member of the power industry association.

“I…” the Water Guild overseer said blankly, “I don’t know how to say it, but it wasn’t the Emperor’s angel, it was some kind of carnivorous animal…”

He watched as the sphere rapidly expanded, quickly exceeding the limit of what the narrow window could see.

Corpses lay on the ground.

Whoohoo!

A short, sharp electrical hum suddenly rang out from the shelter's loudspeakers, followed by a deep, guttural sound.

"People of Andrews, take note! I am the Shadow of Order!"

"By order of the King of Vostoria, Primarch Nimrod, the Tenth Chapter of the Shadow of Order is commanded to rescue you."

"The threat of the aliens is being resolved. Everyone who hears this broadcast, stay inside your residence. This is an order! You must obey, or you will be devoured by the aliens!"

"..."

"Great! It's the Emperor's angel!" the overseer exclaimed excitedly.

“So lucky…it wasn’t those savage wolves,” the Void Harbor clerk murmured, his voice not escaping the respirator.

Even if the wolves wipe out the invading aliens, they won't care about the casualties among these people; the prosperous Andrews will be reduced to ruins.

Everyone will die.

Time passed second by second, but the people in the shelter were no longer in despair. They curiously looked out the window at the fluffy down outside.

The fluff disappeared, and three hours later, warriors in black armor appeared on the street.

The overseer waved his arms forcefully and shouted, "Shadow of Order! Angel of the Emperor!"

A black-armored warrior noticed him and pressed down hard with his left hand.

"He responded to me! Haha!" the foreman shouted happily to the crowd.

Two standard days later, the radio broadcast blared again, "Residents of Andrews!"

"The aliens have been eliminated and driven out. You may return to your homes!"

People walked out of the shelter with smiles on their faces, up the stairs, and onto the ground.

The overseer saw a black-armored giant carrying a huge gun on the street.

He ran over and shouted, "Emperor's angel, thank you for saving us!"

The other survivors followed in his footsteps, shouting loudly.

The Starport clerk looked around, then gazed towards the Starport, his mind flashing back to the strange bodies that had swallowed up the Starport defense forces.

Then I thought of the rumors I'd heard over the past year about being forbidden from being mentioned in the city.

"Praise be to Lord Nimrod! The Shadow of Order is more powerful than the Space Wolves and the Midnight Lords!"

"They've dealt with the Bone Drinkers!"

(End of this chapter)