The Astartes Family's Notebook

Most outsiders' stereotypes about Imperial ships come from the latter, as if they could just find any planet to conscript men when they were short of manpower.

In fact, skilled crew members are a highly sought-after commodity throughout the Empire and cannot be obtained from just any world.

Many worlds that aspire to develop planetary industries but lack the capacity for basic technological accumulation on their own choose to heavily invest in maritime crew training, initially trading population for resources and technology, and then...

Then the planetary nobles will discover that this is a long-term, very lucrative business.

Company Commander Motor Sich took the Fourth Company's inventory list to argue with the planetary governor, temporarily prohibiting members of the two companies from entering the planetary hive from the orbital platform. In addition to daily training, the Fourth Company also began to enter the warband's new barge, which was not yet fully outfitted, in batches to experience the primitive and rugged nature of human industry and its unique domineering beauty.

In layman's terms, this is a rare opportunity, so hurry up and familiarize yourself with the basic framework of the combat barge, in case you need it someday.

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I'd like to give my friend a shout-out again. "Empire Elite" is released today. If you're interested, feel free to check it out. If you're not, please give me a little face and add a first-day subscription. Thanks!

This is just a friendly recommendation from a true friend, not a business-related favor. The author of "Empire Elite" was once a fan of mine, and later, after following his work, he started writing his own books. He has several completed books on other platforms as well. He's just an old author with a new pen name, so you can follow his work without worry.

By the way, please leave a message after subscribing and tell that guy that you guys are just incompetent "paid trolls".

After all, work needs to leave a record, and doing good deeds needs to leave a name, right?

Chapter 58 An Unforgettable Night

Come on, come on, there are three more cups to go after you finish this one.

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Reunions are always fleeting.

Unless the battle group commander issues a mobilization order, it is very difficult to gather all ten companies of a battle group together.

When they actually get together, they're either about to go on a killing spree or they'll cower and lick their wounds.

Apart from the STC template refined with promethium, Motor Sich has sold off all the stolen goods it could to make money.

This is why the planetary government welcomed the Astartes Chapter.

The emperor's angels always manage to bring unexpected surprises to his loyal servants.

The planetary governor really wanted to acquire the STC template as well, but a battle barge had been under construction for seven hundred years and was still not finished, so he dared not take on any more orders.

Other people's orders can be delayed for 1700 or 1800 years without any problem, but we can't delay Astartes' orders, because if we do, people will die.

So, I reluctantly gave up and decided to focus on making a little money from destroyers and frigates.

Large shipyards not under the jurisdiction of the Mechanical Cult are highly sought-after, and even the reservation rights can fetch a high price on the black market.

The shipyard at Hellermaz, capable of building Astartes combat barges, already has a backlog of orders extending to over three thousand.

Imperial technology, isn't it amazing? A ship used for three thousand years? A piece of cake, a drop in the ocean.

After seven hundred years of waiting, the entire Second Company was stationed there, determined not to let any villains snatch their food.

So for the next period of time, we'll be stationed at a fixed location.

The Fourth Company had its own battle plan. Motor Sich rented a banquet hall at the top of the nest, and the two companies had a meal and drinks to get to know each other before parting ways.

The order for three frigates is quite profitable, although it can't compare to the construction period of combat barges and battleships, which often takes three, four, five, six, seven, or eight hundred years. It would take at least fifty years to complete a frigate from scratch.

Moreover, as that old scoundrel Leothers clearly stated, it was a frigate with a captain, crew, and navigator, not an empty shell, so there was no need for Wasteland Wings to build its own supporting facilities.

That's very appealing.

The fact that they're willing to pay this price for four consecutive bids means it can't be an easy task.

Aside from the later standoff between the Grey Knights, Nafar and Omidas's mission to quell the rebellion was actually quite easy.

However, this time, the Grand Instructor of the Tribunal intends to conduct a four-in-one continuous great hunt.

Within a subsector, planetary rebellion, Ork invasion, and Eldar pirate raids occur simultaneously.

Although they are not large in scale, they are still very troublesome.

One problem and one frigate, that's fair enough to increase the burden.

But why does it feel so déjà vu?

The only good news is that the district government where the incident occurred handled the situation well, having already dispatched the Astronautical Army to quell the rebellion, so the Fourth Company doesn't need to find its own way to recruit more personnel.

Having cultivated the Pacific Sector for two thousand years, the Astartes Chapters have had relatively few contacts, but the sector governments and planetary governor families owe the Desolate Wings a considerable number of favors.

Fifteen or sixteen astral legions could be summoned by Motor Sich himself without the need for the chapter commander to appear.

Planetary rebellions are easy to resolve; fortresses that the Astrail Forces cannot breach, the Astartes can handle.

According to the information provided by the old thief, the rebel planet only has a hive energy shield, not a planet-level shield.

Eldar pirates are easy to deal with. The Victory Balance and the Pirate Star are both main warships. They can fight the Eldar Ark if they really face them. If they can't wipe them out, they can drive them away. The Eldar ships are really fast, which is a major weakness of the Imperial Navy. The Blaze of the Wasteland shouldn't be blamed for this.

The problem is the Greenskin invasion.

Unlike the primitive greenskins playing with stones on Nafal, Inquisitor Leothers made it clear that of the two orcish boulders, one was destroyed by the planet's anti-aircraft fire, and the other remained in a planetary synchronous orbit.

The green-skinned orcs capable of creating ancient junk are no ordinary green-skinned orcs; there must be a Warlord and a WarBoss, and perhaps more than one orc warlord.

In particular, we also have to fight space fleet battles.

It's really tough.

The only good news is that the air defenses of the city are still intact, and the Greenskins won't be able to take it down in the short term.

Well, by imperial standards, five to ten years is considered a short time.

After much deliberation, Company Commander Motor Sich decided to play it safe and recruit another batch of armored vehicle operators from Hellermaz.

Those bastards in the Fourth Company are really good at hiding things. Not to mention the Starhawk bombers and the Fury interceptors, there isn't a ready-made crew for pilots at Hellermaz either. This thing has "aircraft" in its name, but it's actually a tiny space warship that requires more than a dozen professional technicians to pilot and maintain. The crew is indeed difficult to obtain, and it's probably only possible to get one from the Starfield Capital.

Aside from high-end goods, the four were truly starving when they were following Makarius. They didn't hesitate to take any of the Leman Rustank, Rhino troop carriers, Porcupine troop carriers, Manticore tanks, or even the Petrified Lizards. They didn't let any opportunity to fleece them slip by.

This made Madasic want to praise Saint Markarius, and he wished he could drink and chat with Saint Markarius.

Because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, we decided to place additional orders. After having a good meal and drinks, we waited two more days.

By this time, the Second Company had already left the Victory Balance.

The combat barge, which could hold three Astartes companies, was empty again, and the morale of the combat comrades in the Fourth Company was also affected.

Aside from regular training, Motor Sich hasn't added any extra tasks; a balance between work and rest is the key to long-term success.

After much deliberation, Kaz, faced with a choice between promotion to sergeant, obtaining Terminator Armor training qualifications, and adding personalized paint to his shoulder armor, shamefully chose the third option.

The news was met with boos from the entire company.

That bastard is from our Fourth Company!

If the first two commendations from the company were "lucky" for getting a set of Terminator armor, then this was a real achievement.

Although it's unclear how the Grey Knights got their hands on the Iron Cavalry-type Terminator Armor, now that they've acquired it, it belongs to the Fourth Company.

No, that old bastard, the warband leader, has always been good at fleecing his own men...

Keep a low profile, keep a low profile.

However, while personalized paint jobs look good, they must still follow the rules. The paint jobs for the Desolate Wings faction are just not good.

If asked what he was most satisfied with, Kaz was most satisfied with the battle group's banner. Above the fiery wings was a yellow sphere symbolizing the sun, and below it was a hollow design in the shape of the Chinese character "山" (mountain). Each company could decide for itself what kind of mountain it was, which also served as a way to distinguish between companies.

However, when it comes to the shoulder armor paint, the Wings of Desolation becomes abstract.

The right shoulder armor is an identification mark, while the left shoulder armor is the warband's emblem.

In the asymmetrical case, the magnificent and fiery wings were abstracted by some battle commander into a forked bird wing, with its feathers raised in a seductive manner, just like a woman's hand.

None of that matters. What matters is that if Kars had never seen the Black Knight's paint job, he wouldn't have harbored such resentment.

The Black Knights' chapter emblem consists of a red, open concentric circle. A flaming sword is positioned in the center, pointing upwards, flanked by purifying flames that extend along the length of the blade. Veterans and members of the inner ring often wear a variant of the emblem, which consists of a large, winged, open concentric circle with a flaming sword icon at its center.

It looks so good, the paint job on the Black Knight is so good.

Look at our Desolation Wings, the desolate atmosphere is there, and the battleband banner is fine.

Why is it that when it comes to the shoulder armor, the mountain is omitted, the wings are changed to a single wing, and the thumbs-up gesture is acceptable, but is it really that hard to draw the sun nicely, or to paint it as a hollow ring with serrations or flames?

What's the shoulder armor paint job for our Desolation Wings? It's like a magician holding an egg, and your mom's calling you to dinner!

If it weren't for the fact that speaking out would raise questions about his loyalty, Kaz wouldn't have wanted to hold back for even a moment.

Sephiroth, you deserve to die!

Chapter 59 The Afterglow of the Empire

The first cry of the Slaanesh dispelled the storm that had swept through the warp for centuries.

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The Iron Man rebellion in the Golden Age marked humanity's final victory.

Therefore, human society in the Golden Age did not collapse directly because of the Iron Man Rebellion.

The real reason this era ended was the arrival of the Old Night, a subspace storm that lasted for centuries that completely severed humanity's subspace travel and communication.

Human settlements scattered throughout the galaxy have become utterly isolated islands of civilization.

The golden age vanished in the despair of the old night.

It wasn't until Slaanesh devoured the souls of the Eldar and ascended to godhood through the Eye of Terror that His appearance dispelled the storm that had swept across the entire Warp and affected the material world for centuries.

So, should the current human empire bow down to Slaanesh?

This is a typical case of asking "why" before even asking "is it true?"—something only a journalism student should learn.

Without Slaanesh's prior preparations for godhood, would such a massive storm have occurred in the warp?

Khorne, Nurgle, and Genche are not innocent; you, Slaanesh, are lucky you can escape.

However, to think that this was the four Chaos Gods targeting humanity during the Golden Age is indeed a bit unfair to those four.

It's true that humanity's golden age has ended, but the collapse of the Eldar Empire is the biggest loser.

The malicious speculation that the Great Storm of the Old Night in the subspace was actually aimed at the Eldar Empire, the then-dominant galactic power, was not legitimate, reasonable, or compliant.

The Milky Way is really big; it can hold two empires.

Humans made contact with the Eldar, who were still intact at the time, during the Golden Age, and the way they made contact was rather unfriendly.

On one side is an old-established psionic race that even possesses time-reversal magic; on the other side are ambitious golden humans who, in order to deal with these pointy-eared creatures, have even developed a plasma pistol with a 120% accuracy rate using mathematical weaponry.

A 100% evasion psionic technique, huh? Take this 120% accuracy, never-overheating five-shot barrage.

It was called the Golden Age, but in reality it was a chaotic mess of demons.

At that time, humanity successfully negotiated with the Eldar Empire based on its strength and status, and the two sides eventually shook hands and made peace.

What a glorious era it was! Just thinking about it is exhilarating.

Unfortunately, it's just a dream now.

The Golden Men are gone, the Eldar Empire is gone, only the Eye of Terror, born from the birth of the Slaanesh, remains to this day.

The skill of multitasking is really useful.

The Fourth Company has quite a few veterans who have fought against the Eldar, and Company Commander Mad Sich and Sergeant Tyrant even have verifiable kill records.

So when they lectured on the knowledge about the Eldar pirates, Kaz listened attentively.

I can multitask effectively, so how can you say I was distracted?

"It's a harsh truth: Eldar warriors are faster than us Astartes. To defeat them, you must take this into account in battle. Without Tyrant's skill, don't attempt one-on-one close combat with Eldar warriors. Utilizing your firepower advantage to create a fatal situation is the correct approach. Kaz, I'm talking to you. No one-on-one close combat, no removing your helmet, or you'll face the consequences!"

No, Company Commander, you told me not to engage in close combat, and I do listen. I do have berserker tendencies, I admit that.

But you said I have this weird habit of taking off my helmet. Unless it's a situation where I'm certain to die or lose, I won't take off my helmet.

Since I'm going to die and lose anyway, how can my emperor see my face if I don't take off my helmet?

Okay, okay, stop glaring at me. I'll listen to you, I won't take it.

The other recruits looked at Kaz with envy, which made Kaz chuckle inwardly.

Kids, don't be envious. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages. I got a spot with Motor Sich by using my connections, but in the future, no matter what happens, good or bad, the old man will think of me first. I won't be able to escape the hard and tiring work either.

To give the new recruits a more direct understanding of Eldar warriors, after the workshop, Mad Sich had Ingus change into regular power armor and then had the recruits remove their armor to experience firsthand the overwhelming speed.