The Emperor’s Angel of Death

As the most special branch of the Aeldari warhosts, the Crimson Hunters have each basically created a record of taking on ten enemies alone. Or rather, only those with such a record are qualified to engrave the symbol of the shrine on their fighter jets.

Although it is a warhost, the Crimson Hunters do not have a Phoenix Lord, because they worship the shrine of the war god Khaine of the Bloody Hand. At the same time, their shrine is not a single building or landscape, but a series of interconnected tunnel-like atriums, which float on the periphery of the Craftworld, just like the sky islands on the edge of the land.

In the shrine, the Crimson Hunters carry out many deadly trainings, but their weapons are not swords or sidearms, but rows of graceful fighter jets.

This is the true uniqueness of the Crimson Hunters. Their direct combat power does not come from themselves. Strictly speaking, they cannot even be called "warriors", because they are all fighter pilots, and the most outstanding pilots in the galaxy. They will highly integrate with their fighter jets, reaching a true state of man-machine unity, and relying on their own unusually sensitive reflexes and psychic enhancements, they can even dodge deadly laser beams.

And the fighter jets they drive represent the pinnacle of Aeldari aviation, called Nightshade fighters, which are faster, more agile, and have more firepower than the similarly named Nightwing fighters!

A Nightshade fighter can carry two Bright Lance cannons, as well as pulse cannons and various missiles, enough to destroy most of the existing small and medium-sized aircraft in the galaxy. At the same time, the Nightshade fighters of the Crimson Hunter Autarchs will replace the Bright Lances with two Star Cannons, whose power is even greater and can even attack ground heavy targets.

The number of Crimson Hunter warhosts is very rare in various Craftworlds, not only because of their strict requirements for members, but also because their fighter jets are too complex and require master Bonesingers to manufacture them. The Vaul's Forge shrine is even more of an exception, because they are the only Crimson Hunter warhost that does not believe in Khaine. They believe in the artisan god Vaul—which makes their existence quite awkward, because Khaine and Vaul are in opposition in Aeldari mythology. The two sides once broke out in very serious conflicts. Generally speaking, Vaul's followers will try to avoid close contact with Khaine's believers, although this does not prevent them from manufacturing weapons for Khaine's warbringers.

The establishment of Vaul's Forge shrine can also be said to be the result of various coincidences. Very early on, Craftworld Iyanden found the wreckage of a Nightshade fighter in a battlefield ruin, and discovered the almost dying Crimson Hunter Autarch Inarrek sleeping in it. Although the other party was a follower of Khaine, Craftworld Iyanden, which believed in Vaul, still saved him. Afterwards, Inarrek gradually accepted the Vaul faith in his long life and established a Crimson Hunter shrine that believed in Vaul.

Because Iyanden is a craftsman world, the Nightshade fighters they manufacture are more powerful than ordinary Crimson Hunter shrines. Because they retain some ancient technologies, they can even install a powerful Void Lance under the nose of the Nightshade fighter—this equipment only appeared on the Corsair Void Raven bomber. At the same time, each Vaul-pattern Nightshade fighter can also carry 6 Phantom missiles, which are extremely efficient air-to-air weapons, using a unique psychic grid guidance mode, and have ghostly movement paths, even against Aeldari aircraft of the same type, they have a very high hit rate.

"Autarch, a formation of enemy bombers has been discovered, and they are fleeing towards low orbit."

The two reconnaissance aircraft in the shrine formation quickly discovered the target and sent back a signal. Aeldari fighters do not need to replenish energy. As long as the pilot is still alive, they can use the psychic engine and the webway power supply system to continue fighting (the Void Lance directly draws energy from the webway to attack, which is very mysterious). After confirming that there is a new target, Inarrek immediately issued a psychic instruction.

"Reap these dirty souls!"

The 12 Nightshades hovering in the sky instantly changed from still to a speed that was difficult to capture with the naked eye and disappeared in place, and then appeared in the airspace where the target was found in a very short time.

At this time, in Inarrek's sight, the sky became like a broken mirror. He felt like he was slowly passing through a lake of brilliant fragments with his arms open. The fragments were filled with ugly Tau aircraft, including their huge bombers, those flat fighters, and small drones.

Then, some of them, 12 flew towards him, and 24 small drones.

They were slow, like fragments floating in an invisible body of water, drifting towards him like that.

Inarrek smiled slightly, straightened his body, and then sideways dodged a fragment.

Then he stretched out his left hand and gently "flicked" a piece of glass, and the Barracuda fighter inside shattered into pieces along with the glass, blooming with tiny "waves".

And the shining "powder" they sprinkled surrounded his body and arms, but he turned a blind eye to it, just gliding gracefully. Even so, not a single grain of "powder" could touch his body. Then he stretched out his left and right hands at the same time, and flicked two more pieces of glass, then reached out and held a larger one in his hand.

That was a Manta, this huge bomber trembled in the glass, then the nose exploded, the left wing broke, and flames burst out from the belly.

If you look closely, you can also see many tiny figures dancing and dancing in its dissected abdomen.

Inarrek curled up a sneer, and with a gentle force, the mirror shattered, and the Manta exploded into countless fragments in the air.

And in reality—

"Impossible! What is this monster! How could there be such a fighter!"

This was almost the cry in the hearts of all the Tau pilots at this time, because just now, a scarlet fighter crashed into their formation at an incredible speed. When they tried to stop it, this fighter directly made a lightning-like Z-shaped ultra-small radius maneuver in a way that ignored the laws of physics!

A high-speed flying fighter can maneuver like this, ah ah!

At that time, all the Tau pilots were like seeing a ghost. This was the first time in their lives that they had seen this kind of "supernatural" aircraft, which once destroyed their understanding of fighters.

But that's not the end of it. While maneuvering, the opponent was like a swift swordsman. Between the flashes of light beams, he instantly killed three Barracudas. However, their hasty focus fire did not even touch the opponent at all. Then this strange red fighter went straight to a Manta. The Void Lance under the nose and the Star Cannons on the wings were firing at full power, and it only took a few seconds to tear apart the Tau's most solid bomber—the Tau's own test results showed that it would take an entire Barracuda squadron to concentrate their firepower to destroy a Manta in a short time.

The last thing that was even more terrifying happened. After destroying the Manta, this high-speed flying warship stopped directly.

That's right, it just hovered in the high altitude, and then, in the ghostly eyes of many Tau pilots, turned its fuselage in place.

The next second, it disappeared in place again.