Warhammer 40: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 330 Healing Thirst and the Hunt
"So how do we deal with these Tyranids? If we can stop the Tyranids from consuming more biomass and reduce their numbers, I think it would be worth sacrificing the Hades system. And if the space necromancers you mentioned will also join the fight, we might even clash with these aliens if we do this."

“I understand your concerns. If sacrificing the Hades system would truly help Baal’s safety, it would certainly be worthwhile for you. However, I have my own methods. I am confident that I can directly locate the central synaptic organism of Tyrannosaurus, the one known as the Norn Queen.”

As for the space necromancers you mentioned, we don't need to cooperate with them to annihilate these Tyranids who have lost their command and have completely turned into beasts.

If those ribs turn on us, then let's fight! After all, they're just a space necromantic dynasty; we're not waging all-out war.

Dante had no objection to going to war with the Necromancers, after all, the Empire's attitude towards the Xenomorphs had always been the same. They could secretly cooperate when there was no other way, but if the situation in the Hades system was stable and could be maintained, then Dante would not sacrifice the hundreds of billions of people in an entire system in exchange for cooperation with the Necromancers.

If word gets out, Dante will be finished! He'd be a disgrace to the Emperor, a disgrace to the great Saint Gilles.

The only question that Dante had was whether their current strength was truly enough to destroy these Tyranids.

"Lord Gao Yi, according to my calculations, our current strength is simply insufficient, isn't it?"

Dante knew very well that the fleet he currently commanded was simply incapable of doing so.

"It wasn't just us who came to help. After receiving the distress call from the Hades system, Guilliman organized his expeditionary fleet and headed here."

His fleet is too large and relatively slow, but you can summon the Blood Angels' sub-companies to come here and join the battle. With the speed of your Astartes Order's warships, they should be able to get here.

As for the Tyranid swarm, I will handle it. You saw everything on Isox; my Zerg forces are more than enough to deal with the Tyranids' numbers!

Under normal circumstances, the Battle of Baal could attract nearly thirty warbands, and the number of people in Astartes would reach more than 30,000. Even if each warband only brought three or four warships, that would still be nearly a hundred warships.

The appearance of the Zerg on Cardia drew the attention of everyone in the Empire who knew about them. The Empire's national policy toward the Zerg initially instilled fear in many people regarding their existence.

Attempts to find their existence all failed until a joint statement from the Imperial Guard and Guilliman claimed that they were biological weapons created by the Emperor, lacking independent consciousness and completely obeying humans, which calmed things down somewhat.

Whether or not those who received the news believed it to be true, at least the existence of the Zerg was legal and compliant with the Empire's laws.

As Gao Yi said, he had maintained contact with Guilliman since arriving in the Hades system. With the resources provided by Gao Yi, Guilliman's First and Second Fleets were on their way.

As long as Gao Yi can kill the Norn Queen, the warp shadow will inevitably be weakened or even disappear. The disappearance of the node creatures will cause the hive will to lose its perception of these Tyranid creatures.

This also made it possible for the Empire's support fleet to enter the fray.

Without the leadership of the Hive's will, the Tyranid tentacles will retreat due to their survival instincts, leaving the Hades system and dispersing in different directions.

These instincts are etched into their genes, and these Tyrannosaurus tentacles, retreating in different directions, will still pursue biomass.

They will attack and devour other star systems along their path until they accumulate enough biomass to form a brand new Tyranid tentacle.

Behemoth and Kraken, these once massive Tyrannical tentacles, have been defeated, but they have not been completely destroyed; their smaller, split tentacles continue to wreak havoc throughout the Empire.

Gao Yi also discussed with Guilliman how to utilize the expeditionary fleet he brought, as well as the combined power of the surrounding star systems and regions.

To resolve the dangers posed by Leviathan in the Misty Starfield, or even Tyrannosaurus in the Milky Way, once and for all, they will not intervene directly.

Gao Yi worried that Leviathan would retreat immediately after realizing they couldn't win, and that their attempt to find the Norn Queen among the countless biological ships, and thus locate the ancient Terran ship in the galaxy, would also be in vain.

Tyrannosaurus's body is merely a shell; his will and soul can be transmitted like a network. Since the Lord of the Swarm and Tyrants have this ability, then the Norn Queen must also have a similar ability.

If the Queen of the Nook destroys her physical body and directly uploads her consciousness to the hive's will, then it will truly be impossible to find her.

Kerrigan discovered the characteristics of the Hive Will when she devoured Tiberius.

Each node creature is like a transit station for the Hive Will. The commands of the Hive Will extend continuously from top to bottom. Although each node creature, such as the most basic Samurai, is also linked to the Hive Will, if you want to find the Norn Queen or the Ancient Ship by devouring Samurai, you need to go through several transit stations.

Once the Norn Queen or the Ancient Ship realizes that it is in danger of being exposed, it will disconnect.

Just like how the Norn Queen severed the link with the cunning Patriarch.

This is why Gao Yi and Kerrigan have been waiting for a sufficiently powerful node creature to appear.

As long as the devouring is fast enough and there are few enough transit stations, the Norn Queen and the Ancient Ships won't be able to react in time!
At this moment, Dante, after pondering for a moment, did not fully agree with Gao Yi's proposal. He did not approve of Gao Yi's idea of ​​gathering the subgroup.

"This is not feasible. Although the mother group has a special status in the eyes of the child groups, the Holy Baal, although it has security risks, has not been attacked. They may not respond to me if it is just a war in the Hades system. Moreover, they also have their own combat missions. I cannot gather them here for my own benefit."

I couldn't do such a thing, and most chapters wouldn't accept it either. Although these sub-churches were all separated from the Blood Angels, so many years have passed and we have almost no contact with many of them. Most of the warriors in some sub-churches have never even set foot on Baal's land.

Perhaps they still consider themselves the sons of Saint Gillespie, but they won't accept my leadership.

Dante truthfully expressed his concerns.

“Baal has not yet faced direct danger, but I believe that no sub-cluster would refuse to come to his aid. Have you forgotten that the Hades system has something equally important right now, namely the way to cure Bloodthirst and Black Fury? I believe that this matter is just as important as Baal’s.”

Gao Yi smiled and looked at Dante.

"Wait a minute. What do you mean by that?! Have you already found a solution?!"

“That’s right, my priests sent me the plan an hour ago.”

After receiving Gao Yi's order, Pavian suspended all projects and devoted all of the Panacea's computing power to cracking the genetic defects of the Holy Blood Angels, and STC lived up to expectations.

"Lord Gao Yi! Are you sure what you're saying is true?!"

"Of course, I guarantee it with my own life!"

“By Saint Gilles, if it is as you say, this reason is indeed sufficient for me to summon all the subgroups, but I must first see the effect!”

"Of course, Dante, let's go to my warship. My priests are already working on the potion!"

By this time, using the laboratory aboard the Star Pioneer, the priests had nearly completed the production of the potion. However, due to the limited resources available in the Star Pioneer's laboratory, they were only able to produce ten vials in a short period.

A priest handed Dante a box filled with medicine.

Dante opened the box and carefully took the potion in his hand. The entire vial was a deep crimson, like fresh blood; though called a potion, it looked more like human blood.
Dante was extremely anxious at this moment.

"Father, are you sure this isn't human blood?"

"Lord Dante, of course, every step was strictly carried out according to the procedures provided by the Panacea. We swear in the name of the Great Holy Mechanism that it will absolutely play its due role."

This is extremely important to the Blood Angels; if it really works, the Blood Angels will be reborn.
Dante barely lingered; he returned to the Blade of Vengeance with the potion and summoned the two company commanders and the Holy Blood Priest.

Dante and the three others sat around the round table, and Dante handed a vial of medicine to the chief priest of the Blood Church, Corbro.

"Koblow, analyze its structure. I need to know if it's really effective for us."

Kobro accepted the offer solemnly. As the chief priest, he had been searching for a way to cure the Bloodthirst for the warband, and the idea that Augustus might be able to cure them was also proposed by Kobro.

As Corbro left, the entire church fell into an eerie silence, with Dante and the other two anxiously awaiting the outcome.

When Corbro returned to the church, all three of them stood up at the same time.

"Lord Dante, the time is too short for me to be completely certain of its composition, but it is not human blood, and based on the current results, it may indeed be useful."

After saying this, Kobro's body trembled with excitement.

Upon hearing Kobro's answer, the three were incredibly excited, but they insisted that he administer the first dose of the medicine.

However, Corbro and the two company commanders sternly refused to let Dante undergo a trial period. Dante was too important to the Angels of the Holy Blood, and there could be no accidents involving him.

The four immediately began discussing finding a suitable test subject, and Dante quickly made his own decision: to have the Flesh-Tearers, who had arrived with the Blood Angels, conduct the experiment.

Seth, the chapter leader of the Flesh-Tearers, arrived aboard the Blade of Vengeance and, led by the Blood Guard, headed towards the Blade of Vengeance's chapel.

He still didn't know why Dante wanted to see him.

At this point, the entire Flesh Rippers Chapter was reduced to only four Astartes companies.

Even a large portion of them were deaths.

The Flesh-Tearers Chapter was founded by Amit, the fifth company commander, when the Blood Angels were still a chapter, after they split off from the Temple.

The original batch of Holy Blood Angels have all perished in battle, and Amit has also disappeared without a trace.

Most of the current members of the Flesh Rippers Chapter come from primitive tribes on their home planet Coretasia. This savage world, teeming with carnivorous plants and animals, makes the Flesh Rippers Chapter exceptionally savage and violent.

They are not Holy Warbands; they prefer to use melee combat to defeat their opponents.

The various barbaric acts and customs within the chapter have made the Flesh Rippers increasingly prone to falling into a state of dark rage, resulting in a far more severe and obvious degeneration of the entire Flesh Rippers' genetic seed than other Blood Angels sub-chapters.

This also resulted in the number of Death Legion members within the Flesh Rippers Chapter far exceeding the normal number; these warriors, completely lost in Black Fury and unable to extricate themselves, and devoid of reason, were all included in this category.

Within every Blood Angels chapter, there exists a Death Company.

According to the assessment of the Warband Priests, given the Fleshbreakers' fighting style, the low probability of Blackfury appearing, and the way they replenish their ranks, it is very likely that the entire Warband will not be able to maintain even two companies within a thousand years.

Within two millennia, the Flesh-Tearers will be completely wiped out of history.

It's fair to say that the Flesh Rippers are universally disliked throughout the Imperium. Imperial forces fear being torn apart along with their enemies by these lunatics, and the Flesh Rippers, driven mad by Black Fury, do indeed do just that. To cover up Black Fury's scandals, they have even planned to massacre friendly forces who witnessed it, and have even clashed head-on with the Space Wolves.

Hundreds of Astartes died in that conflict.

Even the Blood Council of the Holy Blood Angels became suspicious and wary of them.

The harsh reality made Seth realize the seriousness of the problem. He knew he couldn't save his chapter, but if his chapter was destined to perish, he hoped that the chapter would die in an honorable and dignified manner on the cruelest battlefield.

This is why it was the first to respond and tried every means to get to the Hades Galaxy.

When Seth entered the church, he saw Dante, the captain of the Angels of the Blood, and the priests all watching him arrive.

"Lord Dante, I have arrived."

“Seth, I am glad that the Flesh Rippers Chapter answered my call, and now an opportunity to completely save the Sons of Saint Gilles is before us. I need your help.”

"What do you mean?"

"We both know that your warband is suffering from Bloodthirst and Blackfury, and your warband is on the verge of collapse."

Upon hearing Dante's words, Seth looked at Dante with a sorrowful expression, as if questioning why he had reopened the wounds of the Flesh-Tearer. However, Dante's next words caused his expression to change drastically.

Dante raised the blood-red potion in his hand and said to Seth...
"This gene serum might be able to cure our genetic defects, Seth. Would you be willing to try it for the sake of the Sons of Saint Gilles? You are the ones most severely affected. Although I am not yet sure if it will work, if it does, I need you to help me verify whether it is effective enough to cure all the Sons of Saint Gilles!"

You and the Flesh-Tearer Chapter will enjoy the glory you deserve, and the Sons of Saint Gilles will remember your contributions!

Upon hearing Dante's words, Seth immediately knelt down on one knee and agreed almost without hesitation.

As he removed his power armor and lay on the operating table under the watchful eyes of the Holy Blood Priests, receiving the injection, he immediately felt the changes within his body.
That thirst for blood was actually disappearing.
"Lord Dante! It really works! I can feel the thirst draining from my body! Saint Gilles! The Flesh-Tearers are saved!!"

(End of this chapter)