Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 493 The Curtain Opens
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Unnamed Triple Galaxy
Mandeville Point

Now-
The huge Indomitable Star Fortress lifted the curtain of the warp like a queen and began to proudly reign over this nameless and remote galaxy.

Her crown is the intricate spires and golden statues of the Central Cathedral that reach into the sky, her scepter is the navigators' ships in front of her, the lace on her skirt is the more than six hundred tugboats around her and the thick iron chains behind them that tow her forward, and her long and gorgeous tail is the vortexes and residual subspace ion bubbles ejected synchronously by the many frigates and supply fleets surrounding her.

The queen, dressed in a blue and white-gold dress, finally waved her mysterious ancient plasma-like stance impatiently at the disturbing veil that obscured her, and the waves of warp and reality broke in front of her like bizarre bubbles. The entire Indomitable fleet completely jumped out of Mandeville Point and began to move towards the orbit of the largest gas planet in this uninhabited triple-star system.

The three stars here are completely uninhabitable, and due to their distance from other worlds, they do not have much mining value, so they are simply named in order of Inner, Middle, and Outer Escali. The orbit they are about to enter is around the giant planet Outer Escali.

The coordinates of this jump were marked by the current commander of Indomitable Star Fort, Fearless Brother Artorion from the 5th Company of the Ultramarines. Not only because this place is still right on the edge of the Ultramar sector, but also because the gas giant here constantly emits powerful ionizing radiation, spews high-energy steam fountains hundreds or even thousands of kilometers high from the surface of its hydrogen ocean, and the asteroid ring attracted by its gravity is a very good hiding place that can accommodate the entire fleet.

After staying here for a full nine standard solar days to rest, they can set off again, mark a random location, and jump into the Warp Ocean again to start the next never-ending journey.

Now, the command center that just jumped out of the warp is busy. Sergeant Oranto of the 5th Company of the Ultramarines is standing here, and next to him is Commander Brother Artorion. This dreadnought uses his bionic instruments and electronic pipelines to connect the entire star fortress, and operates the entire fortress through sensory observation methods similar to those of a mechanical priest.

On the other side of Artorion was an Astartes wearing rust-red power armour, with the black and white Mechanicus gear emblem inlaid on his chest and right shoulder, but the edge of his shoulder armour was also the black of the Fifth Company, while the colour of his left shoulder armour was standard Ultramarines blue with a white "U" symbol on it, indicating that he was a Tech-Sergeant of the Ultramarines.

Due to the special features of Artorion's body, a technical sergeant is usually assigned to be on duty in places he often goes to. Today, the one here is Brother Hestia, who stands next to the Dreadnought, responsible for issuing and cooperating with the Dreadnought commander's work. There are also spots of light flashing on the technical sergeant's helmet, and he shares a lot of navigation data synchronously with the Dreadnought.

"We have confirmed the direction of our jump with the navigator's Omen Vision," he said. "According to the data they sent back, our jump has almost no error, and the accuracy has reached more than 97%. It will take at most 33 seconds to complete the angle change and get into position in orbit."

"Thank you, Lucien. You are still so efficient and reliable. Please confirm the safety of the surrounding environment for the last time, and we can start the circumnavigation."

"Received. Confirming. I am not Lucian, Commander." The Tech-Sergeant replied dryly as usual, "I am Hestiaan. Lucian is the Tech-Sergeant brother who served you more than two centuries ago."

"Ah." There was a gearbox noise deep inside the Dauntless, and the synthesizer made a sound that sounded like apology and sigh. "I'm sorry, of course, Brother Hestia."

"Nothing, Commander." Oranto saw Hestiaan continue to check the various data indicators after the Inflexible jumped out. This technical sergeant was one of the best mechanical masters of the Fifth Company. He had served here for much longer than Oranto. As a member of the Fifth Company's rotating duty, Oranto was transferred from his own tactical team to serve here for the ninth year. He only had a few months to successfully return to his original team and let the other half of the Fifth Company take over his position.

It would be a lie to say that he did not yearn to return to his Chapter and his brothers, but Oranto had served the Chapter as an Ultramarines for four centuries, and his scarred face and graying flaxen hair showed his tenacity and sense of responsibility as a veteran, so he would still do his duty and not let anyone discover his eagerness until the day he handed over his shift.

On the other side, the Tech Sergeant, Dauntless and other technicians in the command center were still carrying out the inspection and restart of the Inflexible in a tense and orderly manner.

"How long will it take for the void shield to be raised again?" Artorion checked the combat readiness and was not very satisfied with what he saw. "We should raise the defense as soon as possible after we leave the warp, regardless of whether the surroundings are quiet or not, Hestian."

"The void shield engines are fine and are on standby, waiting for the warp holes and aetheric contamination to be completely neutralized from the surface of the Inflexible in four hundred and ten seconds," the Techsergeant replied briefly, while pointing out to the Dauntless, "Brother Altorion, I noticed that you haven't brought all of your weapon systems online yet."

"How could that be? Approval for the weapons system to go online has always been the first step after jumping out - oh." Fearless muttered as if he had reacted again, and the gears inside clattered. "Indeed, some weapons systems in the fourth quadrant in the south are offline... How long will it take for the second quadrant to be ready?"

Hestiaan called out a number, and Artorion began to mutter Lucian's name again, and Hestiaan reminded the commander flatly in his mechanical voice.

Oranto smiled faintly as he watched these two reliable and loyal brothers verbally arguing with each other but also helping each other under the rusty reflection of the planet outside the window.

Artorion was much older than Oranto, and he had been buried in the Dreadnought for more than two hundred and fifty-three years. The power battering ram in the hands of this respectable ancient hero was a gift from Lord Calgar after the Battle of Macragge. The Dreadnought elder was sometimes a little confused due to his old age and lack of sleep, but it was not a big problem. Hestian was the best technical sergeant of the Fifth Company, and he could assist Artorion in completing all the work on the Indomitable.

"The shield will be raised in sixty-six seconds. The weapon system has completed preparations before going online... The color of this planet is still so ancient."

The woman in armor standing next to the sergeant frowned slightly at this moment. She seemed to have some questions about the condition of the Altorion brothers. Oranto knew what she wanted to ask, and this was her duty. Although the sergeant himself did not like her and the department she represented, since he was the monk responsible for connecting with this newcomer, he needed to be prepared with appropriate answers to such questions.

But a sudden sharp warning sound interrupted the woman's action of raising her head to ask Oranto.

All the alarm lights in the command center lit up glaringly. The operators looked frightened but still maintained order and efficiently transmitted new alarm data.

"Alert! Enemy identification! Sixty... no... seventy targets!"

"Strengthen the scan! Report a more detailed situation!"

"It's like it suddenly appeared from the air! Sir!" The mortal officer stammered, "There was clearly nothing here just now!"

"A very patient ambush." ​​Hestiaan's voice was as calm as ever. "The timing was very good. - The void shield still cannot be raised immediately."

"Where is their target location?!" A harsh metallic friction sound came from Artorion's loudspeaker, "Where is the target location?!" The mortals began a series of hasty calculations. Oranto pushed the people around him and hurried to the nearest auspicious device. He saw dozens of light spots representing the attacking side heading towards the fourth quadrant dock of the Indomitable. "The southern dock." He said.

"This is too accurate." Hestiaan said, "Whether it's the location where we jumped out, the timing of their ambush, or the target."

"No time for this, brother." Orlanto took off his helmet from the magnetic lock on his waist and strode out of the command center. "I have to hurry. You and the elders must immediately summon all the soldiers and auxiliary troops to the highest state of combat readiness. I'm afraid this matter today will not end well."

"Why?" asked the woman who chose to follow him after weighing the pros and cons. Orlanto was relieved to hear that she was calling the mortal troops she brought with her on her channel to head to the southern dock. "It doesn't look like a big threat."

"Not fast enough, and the reflective mass is too small." Orlanto put on his veteran helmet, and the airtight lock clicked and locked it. His voice came dully from behind the visor, "This is not like a normal torpedo, it is likely a boarding torpedo. If we are lucky, it is not all Chaos scum, but just pirates and aliens. In this case, half of the Fifth Company and 6,000 well-trained Ultramar auxiliary troops will be enough to deal with them."

"What if it's unfortunate?" she asked, and began to deploy her troops. Oranto knew that she was allowed to take a whole squadron of "Datian Lizards" aboard the Indomitable to perform her duties, but she had been there too shortly and they were still full of doubts about each other.

"If we are unlucky, that means six to seven hundred of our fallen cousins ​​will jump onto our docks where we have no shields or defensive weapon systems."

The Inquisitor immediately understood what Oranto meant.

"Your Chapter has only fifty guards here."

"That is true, but the Inflexible's ancient design will help us. Come, use these traitors as an example, and I will show you its finer points."

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Unnamed Triple Galaxy
Outer Eskari
600 seconds before the attack begins
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"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Adalic Vannus reviewed the plans of a certain master potion master who also worked as a warsmith. "I know you never really liked the berserkers that Uluventa left you, but..."

"But no matter how high their individual combat capabilities are, they are useless to me, Wannas."

Hong Suo sat on his command throne. The bridge deck of his flagship, the Zhan Zi, was now being scrubbed clean by the order of the returning war blacksmith. Forty slaves worked in unison, not only polishing the floor to a shine, but also the equipment panels, which now revealed their true brass and walnut patterns. The eight-pointed stars or similar symbol decorations were removed, and then the walls and other places that had been painted with some suspicious phrases and slogans praising the dark gods were also repainted.

"My strategy leaves little room for warriors who cannot follow orders, and it just so happens that here, in this carefully constructed battlefield, the position I have left for them can allow them to play their greatest role."

"But they are still very valuable combat forces. We won them with great difficulty in harvesting skulls. They were also our brothers."

"Adalic, Adalic." Honso shook his head. He seemed to be amazed at the Shadow Master's obsession with preserving every soldier's life. "You still attach too much importance to the old friendship and past glory. To win in today's universe, you have to abandon some things that have been adhered to for thousands or tens of thousands of years... The battlefield will not remain unchanged. The same is true for humans and gods. Victory is more important to me, because that is my gift."

The Shadow Master's eyes looked at the hybrid inquiringly, but the Potion Master's face now looked calmer, and the wrinkles that were always from worry, struggle, anger and pain that were almost carved into the skin of his face were now only faint lines. He had the ancient and noble features of the Iron Warriors and the graceful and upright posture of the Imperial Fists. No one in the entire fleet could peek into his thoughts from behind his increasingly peaceful but dangerous expression.

It had been like this ever since he returned from the world where he was looking for the prophetess. It seemed that something there had further strengthened his faith, causing him to begin transforming some of his rebellious thoughts into seductive venomous whispers to poison the minds of those around him.

At least he persuaded Katya Salongba and her frenzied pirate fleet to join Tucker and Atasiya's fleet immediately after completing their mission and retreat back to the Maelstrom first. This alone is enough to surprise people, not to mention his subsequent daring plan.

Daring to attack the core world of Ultramar is an incredible feat for a Chaos Lord, but this alchemist who is highly appreciated by his gene father undoubtedly wants more.

Finally the former Raven Guard sighed.

"If everything goes well, how do you plan to deal with the Blackheart King in the end? Aren't you afraid that Huron will think that you are more powerful than him?"

"Leave it to me." Honsou smiled. "If I was facing a purely selfish person like Ezekyle Abaddon, I would never plan such a bold action, and I would try to run far away so that he couldn't find me. But Luft Huron is different. Since he really has some rules, he can't be more difficult to deal with than any other Primarch."

"... Considering that the purpose of our attack on the Indomitable was to find a demon prince like M'ka the Three-Born... you don't really want to destroy a few planets in the Macragge system to gain fame and great achievements for yourself in the Maelstrom, do you? Or Calth? Talasa?"

The smile on Hong Suo's face became more unpredictable.

"We'll take it one step at a time," he said. "The time has come. Let's launch the Bloody Skeletons' boarding torpedoes as planned."

(End of this chapter)