Warhammer 40 Spring: Loyalty of the Multiverse

Chapter 167 Is this still Astartes?
With a sudden punch, Klepach smashed a mortal slave serving him into a bloody mess.

The words of that man in black armor struck a nerve with him, hitting the most sensitive spot in his heart. He could sense that the man in black armor was definitely Roger Dorn's son, definitely the Imperial Fist who stole their design for the Imperial Palace.

Thinking of that guy, and that fatal taunt just now, especially the so-called betrayal in his words, it seems they've already broken ties.

Their Primarch should have already declared their allegiance; since the Legion's founding and the Primarch's return, their Legion has been doing all the dirty work.

Especially after their home planet Olympia was handed over to the Mechanicus by that false emperor, they knew that their mission as tools was complete and that they had been abandoned.

They shed their blood for the empire, only to be humiliated as mere tools!

"I'm going to turn them into garbage sorting machines!" Klepatch roared, and the other Iron Warriors behind him also shouted angrily about the greatness of their Primarch.

As the order was given, the warship's plasma engines accelerated forward. His holographic communication with Tie Hui had already been shut down.

They have now officially entered a state of war!
They were already at war. But as was the case with Astartes, who often analyzed the strength of their enemies before a battle, Kleparch subconsciously began to analyze what kind of beings those Astartes, who could stand alone in space, were.
Could it be that the Empire's Mechanicus has developed some new technology?
If the Astartes could enable individual space penetration, then things like gunboat landing craft and boarding torpedoes would probably be useless.

Moreover, they unexpectedly arrived in this star system in the border region of the empire. Despite being on the empire's frontier, it was unusually prosperous.

There were dozens of warships, including seven or eight battleships. The remaining large numbers of transport ships were wandering back and forth throughout the star system.

Therefore, he was certain that this must be the base where the Mechanicus and the Empire were secretly researching new types of Astartes.

If he could take over this place… Thinking of this, he paused and looked at the scanned intelligence that had been transmitted back.

He felt they couldn't possibly capture it!

After all, a single salvo from an enemy warship could penetrate their void shield and tear their entire warship to shreds.

The initial rage that surged into his brain miraculously vanished without a trace after witnessing the disparity in strength between the two sides, leaving only an admirable sense of rationality and composure.

"Retreat! We are far too weaker than our target!" Klepatch suddenly gave an order, which stunned all the steel warriors present and the mortals who had already begun to accelerate the warship forward.

This doesn't feel like their style!

The Iron Warriors turned to look at Klepatch in confusion. Had they chickened out?

Klepach, without batting an eye, said, "The strength of the targets is somewhat unknown. They can fight in space as individual soldiers. And there are just too many pseudo-emperors around! Therefore, we can conclude that this must be their secret base for cultivating new types of Astartes. We need to bring this information back to Olympia!"

Then, he scolded the mortals, "Get moving, you lazy insects!"

He then explained to the other Iron Warriors, "My father is currently on his way to Istvan V, where he is meeting up with the War General. Our goal is great: to overthrow this corrupt empire and expose the false emperor's hypocritical mask. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to prevent the enemy from growing stronger. Thus, we must bring this message back intact, even if only one brother remains. But as long as we can bring the message back, it will be worthwhile!"

The other Iron Warriors watched him in silence, but they clearly accepted his explanation. After all, the sight of those Astartes standing in space and the mortals equipped with unknown armor was unsettling to them.

After their silent agreement, the warship suddenly turned and prepared to flee.

But how could this possibly satisfy them?
Dozens of ship-class and Firestorm-class corvettes, like predators lurking in the ocean, suddenly emerged from the dark expanse of space and swam towards Kleparch's ships. For the safety of their own star system, Archsage Yuramirs had already deployed a large number of space sentry posts and several patrol ships around Mandeville Point.

Meanwhile, Tie Hui and the others stared at each other in disbelief as the Lunar-class cruiser slowly turned its bow and attempted to escape.

"Damn it! We're already here, and you think you can just leave without even sitting for a bit?" Tie Hui commanded a Cobra-class frigate that had already arrived to speed up towards them. The other warships had already surrounded Steel Warriors' cruisers.
Equipped with nano-cores, the group immediately activated the engines on their backs and began high-power propulsion.

This is because there is no gravitational influence from planets in space, and Astarte's own weight reduces the energy consumption of the nanocore by more than half.

Although traveling a short distance to an enemy warship by individual soldier would be quite arduous and costly, logistics would be more than sufficient since this was on their own territory.

Therefore, no one needed to worry about the energy consumption of the nanocore. However, Tie Hua still ordered a Cobra-class destroyer that had already sailed here to pick up all of them.

After all, that distance is just too far. Even if the nano-core engine burns out, it's impossible to get there in a short time!

The Cobra-class destroyers' engines propelled them rapidly toward the Iron Warrior's warship.

The other warships were already close to their weapon range before them. However, the price they paid was quite high; their own Sword-class and Firestorm-class frigates had already lost more than seven ships in just over ten minutes.

The Cobra-class destroyers are among the fastest warships in the entire Imperial fleet, capable of physical space travel.

In just over 20 minutes, the destroyer had reached the enemy's vicinity. However, the weapon systems on the Steel Warrior warship had already launched an attack on them.

Seeing the enemy's void shield flickering under their attacks, Tie Hui immediately ordered all warships to launch thermal torpedoes.

He initially wanted his men to board the enemy individually, but then he reconsidered. While individual soldiers were agile, small, and less likely to be detected, they lacked the necessary individual weapons to penetrate enemy armor.

This further exposed the shortcomings and weaknesses of these Astartes that assemble nanocores.

Although it possesses a magnetic energy cannon, after comparing the data, it was determined that while it could penetrate the armor thickness of a cruiser, it would still take a considerable amount of time to actually break through it.

This battle also prompted Iron Ash to begin documenting some shortcomings of the Vanguard Astartes. He planned to review it upon returning, considering any basic improvements possible, and if not, conduct large-scale research on it in the next world.

At his command, nearly a hundred space torpedoes were fired at the Capel Luna-class cruiser.

Less than two seconds after these torpedoes were launched, the scouts who had been poised at their launch ports suddenly kicked off, started their engines, and flew behind the torpedoes.

The torpedoes were flying much faster than them. In just a few seconds, they fell far behind and had to continue accelerating.

In particular, the hundreds of meters long blue trail of light trailing behind it made the brothers and mortals on the other warships extremely envious.

The members of the Mechanicus, in particular, were filled with hatred!
Klepach's eyelids twitched at the sight. What the hell was that?
Is this still Astartes?
A single soldier breaks through from a planet into space, and then boards the enemy warship from space.

How could this possibly be Astartes?
……

(End of this chapter)