The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Watching Huron's projection, which was filled with impotent rage and eventually dissipated, Sotha chuckled, turned and scanned the warriors from various chapters looking at him, retracted his gaze, and walked to the command throne.

"Dietrian, open the all-domain broadcast, I want every ship in the fleet to hear my voice, and if possible, let the Red Corsairs hear my voice too."

"As you command."

As the two servo skulls lifted the audio device to Sotha's, he took a deep breath, looked at the Red Corsairs fleet that had already formed in formation on the display, and slowly said:

"Warriors, loyal servants, believers, servants of the Omnissiah, no matter what position or identity you hold, please listen carefully to my words at this moment. It has been 6 years, almost 7 solar years, since I received the appointment of expedition commander in 962. In these 6 years, I have seen countless brave and great men and women, and I have also seen countless unknown people dedicating themselves to allow others to live better. Although I know that my words cannot cover one or two of what you have given, someone once asked me, why did the Empire launch this expedition? I answered him, for survival. That person then asked, if it is for survival, then wouldn't it be better to hide in a safe place? I told him, this is our responsibility! The Empire is a great nation, no matter how old and tired it is, but it has been able to stagger through this ten thousand years, which is exchanged for blood by every mortal, martyr, and predecessor. We live under its shelter, so we must protect it! So we must go on an expedition to protect it from those who slaughter, plunder, and worship demons! This is also to protect each of us!"

Accompanied by radio waves, Sotha's voice echoed in every ship of the Empire——

Space Marines stood firm at their posts, weapons tightly gripped in their hands, motionless.

In the gun emplacements, the operators put their hands on the consoles, focusing on the small loudspeakers.

The Tech-Priests were still busy at their posts, meticulous and calm.

The Sisters stood before the shrines, their hands clasped tightly around their rosaries, offering final pre-battle prayers led by Viletts.

On the dark lower decks, the repair crews gripped their tools, surrounded the faint communicator, their dirty faces in the dim light, like sculptures.

The slave laborers dragged heavy objects through the passages with difficulty, occasionally looking up, then immediately lowering their heads and continuing their work.

"Some say they are just pirates, insignificant, no threat. No, I have seen too many cruel and twisted atrocities. They skin living people alive and turn them into traps, throw children into fire pits, and more ironically, those who do all this are the guardians who once claimed to protect those who were slaughtered! For such depraved enemies, we should have immense hatred and fight them in space, on land, and in the warp! This is our recognition of your noble faith, and also the requirement of the imperial citizens to their army! Now the enemy is lined up in front of us waiting to die, yes, there are many of them, but doing so is just to hide the cowardice in their hearts, there is no word 'brave' in their minds, so we don't need to fear them! We can and will defeat the fallen, can this be doubted? For six years, countless glorious victories have proved that the enemy is not as powerful as some panic-stricken defeatists describe, and the devil is not as terrible as people describe! Who can deny that the Empire's great legions have repeatedly driven the Red Corsairs, who used to show off their power, into a panic and fled? Under the strong blows of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, these hyena-like plunderers have long been on the verge of collapse, it is like a dilapidated house on the verge of collapse, no matter how huge it looks, kicking it down still only requires a light kick! Warriors, loyal servants, believers, servants of the Omnissiah, I sincerely invite you to witness this great victory together, and it is precisely because of your fearless courage and indomitable fighting spirit that the great Human Empire can stand tall! Fight! Use our cannons, torpedoes and fighters to tell those traitors that today they will bleed the last drop of blood for their past actions! For the Emperor, for the Empire, for humanity!!!"

Just as Sotha's speech ended, the Red Corsairs' fleet reacted first. Several Raider ships on the edge of the fleet suddenly turned their bows and accelerated in the opposite direction, obviously trying to escape before the battle.

This made Huron furious, but now he couldn't disrupt the formation because of a few small ships, so he could only watch the other party escape.

There is no doubt that the morale of the Red Corsairs suffered a serious blow.

Then the two fleets slowly approached each other with cautious steps like actors.

From the perspective of strength comparison, although some fleets were transferred to attack Tu'Shan, Huron's existing strength is still not weak. His fleet includes not only his flagship battle barge *Devourer of Souls*, but also the *Retribution*-class battleship *Desperate Prayer*, the *Avenger*-class battleship *Torment*, the *Apocalypse*-class battleships *Absolution* and *Sacrifice* (these two were seized by Huron from the Word Bearers and have been hidden and sealed in New Badab), a total of 4 battleships, as well as another 2 battle barges, 17 heavy/large cruisers, and more than 150 various types of medium and small warships.

In addition, there is an extremely large derelict ship in their fleet. This derelict ship is called *Death Flux*, which is the second surprise Huron left for Sotha in addition to the Blackstone Fortress, and also the support he exchanged from that mysterious backer with a huge secret. Compared to the *Savage Crucible*, its interior is almost "clean", of course, except for certain things that "should exist".

This ancient derelict ship is even larger than the *Savage Crucible*, exceeding 120 kilometers in length, and its exterior is even more distorted. Some of the hull has mutated into wrinkled flesh or crystals wrapped in flames, and has also grown squirming hands, mouths full of sharp teeth, and some have become giant maggots with bizarre structures and strange biological turrets, and even some have bat wings, building pyramids with brass and scattered bones, each of those pyramids is as huge as a capital ship, and is full of demons eager to board enemy ships and brutally kill all opponents in front of them, and the reason why they can stably exist in the material universe is because this huge derelict ship provides them with a steady stream of evil energy - compared to the *Savage Crucible*, another special feature of the *Death Flux* is that it has a warp gate inside.

Huron's consideration was that if he could use these to defeat Sotha, then the Blackstone Fortress should appear as late as possible, so that he could delay the time of his transaction with that being, and then he would have room to find a way to keep this big treasure——