The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Watching Occam with his knowing look, Soshjan suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to argue, and said with a sneer:

"Your plan is comprehensive, but I can still send a signal to Khan Kosaro, telling him to turn around and hold Huron at all costs, and then I'll pursue from behind. →"

Occam's face remained expressionless, he simply said softly:

"You can, but the price is that Kosaro will die, Chapter Master. Are you willing to accept such a price?"

Soshjan instantly clenched his fists, he really wanted to punch the other man, but he held back.

"It's just a possibility."

"No, it's inevitable. Kosaro's fleet is the weakest of all the fleets. Although Zhu Fu's fleet doesn't seem strong either, Zhu Fu has his own trump card. He signed a contract with Angron, the First Greater Daemon of Khorne. He can summon this terrifying helper. Kosaro will have trouble dealing with that alone, and with Huron added, he's doomed."

Soshjan gritted his teeth in anger, but had to admit that Occam was right. If he sent Kosaro to hold Huron, it would be the same as sending this brave hunting master to his death, because Kosaro would definitely attack Huron at all costs.

"...If, if it were Helbrecht, Lysander, Mazhar, or even Seth making the decision, then they would undoubtedly choose to sacrifice Kosaro for the greater good, because in the Imperium, so-called sacrifice is just a worthless palliative, let alone sacrificing others, but only you, Chapter Master Soshjan..."

The Null suddenly revealed a meaningful smile.

"And precisely because of this, I appear before you, and I have returned to face you."

Occam guessed right, he couldn't accept such a price. After all, the White Scars were one of the most supportive founding Chapters at the beginning of the crusade. If something happened to Khan Kosaro, how could he face Chapter Master Jubal?

The enemy who knows you best is the most terrifying enemy.

For a moment, he felt a genuine desire to kill Occam for the first time.

"Is that a compliment, or mockery? Occam, do you really think I'm reluctant to kill you!"

"I'm right here. Dispose of me as you wish."

Soshjan stared at him, and besides anger, another clear-headed thought reminded him that if it weren't for Occam, this crusade would probably still be dragging on and consuming resources, and with the Imperium's unique 'efficiency', it wouldn't achieve any results for decades. From this point of view, Occam was undoubtedly the number one contributor to the crusade.

He experienced the meaning of the words "love-hate" for the first time, and truly realized that people's hearts are much more complicated than he thought.

In the end, Soshjan helplessly scanned his surroundings, then pointed at the other man and said in a low voice:

"You win, Occam. For the sake of your past merits, I won't kill you, but you will reflect on your behavior in the Chapter Monastery's prison until you are willing to reveal your true motives! I won't let Huron go either. New Badab will be his burial ground! I will prove that your so-called wisdom is just self-deception!"

Occam didn't show any expression, but smiled slightly.

"Congratulations on your great victory, Chapter Master Soshjan."

Soshjan shook his head, turned around and walked away, and opened a private communication with Talos.

"Talos, take some men to the bridge and take Occam away."

"Huh? Occam? What happened?"

"Ask him yourself."

When Soshjan walked out of the bridge door, everyone looked at him with puzzled expressions, because although there was a door between them, no one had heard the sound of fighting.

Under everyone's gaze, Soshjan's mood worsened. Yazdan then asked carefully:

"Chapter Master, Huron..."

Although he felt extremely humiliated, Soshjan could only bite the bullet and say:

"I... I was tricked. There was only a double of Huron here, he's already run away..."

"This—"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, because they were all used to Soshjan's past judgments and commands, which were almost never wrong. No one reacted for a moment.

Soshjan's expression was strained, but it was also very unsightly, because it was as if he had been flawless in the entire crusade, but capsized at the last moment, and this judgment was also made in front of everyone, which meant that the responsibility for Huron's escape lay entirely with his personal misjudgment, which was an extremely huge blow to his reputation.

And what's worse, he also ordered the Mantis Warriors and Flesh Tearers not to pursue deeply, otherwise there might still be room for recovery, but now they must have already turned around, and how should he explain it then?

Under everyone's gaze, he was so ashamed that he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into, but there was no way, this was his responsibility. After all, trusting Occam was also his choice.

He could only bear the blame.

But it was useless to regret it now, he could only try to clean up the situation as beautifully as possible. Occam at least explained Huron's subsequent actions, so Soshjan could still respond.

"Mark, send a message to the Eternal Crusader, and tell them to immediately notify Khan Kosaro to withdraw from the battlefield, on the grounds that an unknown number of enemy troops have been detected approaching his location, and let him wait for the follow-up troops to arrive."

In fact, these were just lies to get Khan Kosaro to withdraw from the battle, but there was no way, Huron definitely couldn't be caught, and another senior commander couldn't be lost.

"Yes."

After that, Soshjan returned to the flagship without saying a word, and directed the fleet to wipe out the remaining enemy forces.

The battle was now very clear. After six hours of fierce fighting, two-thirds of Huron's main fleet was annihilated on the battlefield, and the remaining one-third fled. Then the fleet turned to the Cala System, but the Red Corsairs fleet attacking here had also received the news in advance and retreated. The distant Kosaro fleet had launched two boarding actions and concentrated offensives against Zhu Fu's flagship, once approaching Zhu Fu's bridge, but were repelled due to the presence of the powerful Khorne Greater Daemon Angron. When Soshjan's message came, Kosaro was still a little reluctant. When a fleet did appear, he withdrew his fleet, but he didn't expect it to be Huron's fleet. By the time the other side joined Zhu Fu and left, it was already too late.

As for the Savage Mortuary, without any support, the Dark Angels and Unforgiven defeated the space hulk Savage Mortuary by their own strength, and annihilated most of the Red Corsairs' ships. Only one-tenth of the ships escaped, and floating red figures could be seen everywhere around the battlefield.

After the war, a rough estimate showed that the Imperium lost a total of 29 capital ships, 234 medium and small ships, 34 transport ships, more than 8.8 million crew members, 1,789 aircraft of various models, and more than 5,000 aircraft pilots on several battlefields. The Space Marines lost 891 men in boarding and anti-boarding operations, and the Adeptus Mechanicus also lost more than 20,000 Tech-Priests of various types and more than 1.6 million Skitarii.

It is worth mentioning that the Astra Militarum forces on the Doom of Obligation, with a total of 3.5 million defenders, suffered more than 2.7 million casualties after the war. They can be said to have borne the greatest pressure of the entire battle, fighting against the daemons and heretics that poured out of the Savage Mortuary with mortal bodies. It was precisely because of their sacrifice that Azrael was able to eliminate the Red Corsairs with a smaller price. The price was that many regiments were almost completely sacrificed. For example, the 310th Abukari Infantry Regiment, which Soshjan paid special attention to, withstood the enemy's attacks from three directions after the front-line troops collapsed, and held their ground for five hours. Colonel Arnie fought on the front line until he was seriously injured and unconscious. If he hadn't been wearing the mysterious Huntmaster armor, he would have died long ago. In the end, all 8,133 men of the regiment, except for a few wounded who were transferred to the rear, only the regimental headquarters and Arnie's guard company of more than 100 men withdrew from the battlefield with the unconscious Arnie. All other battalion-level and company-level officers were killed in battle, and all the soldiers of the combat companies and even the logistics soldiers were killed in battle. It can be said that the entire organization was completely wiped out.