The Emperor’s Angel of Death

In the void, a fully armed asteroid fragment floated silently, far from it, a ship with obvious characteristics of the human empire, but on closer inspection, was very different.

The most unique point was that it lacked the crowded gun decks of Imperial ships, making the entire hull appear somewhat "empty".

However, as one command after another was activated, the movable armor plates on the front of the warship's spine unfolded and locked into place.

Inside the ship, all personnel were on standby, servo-skulls busily darted through the air, and the Tech-Priests constantly monitored, transmitted, and adjusted massive amounts of data, everyone holding their breath in concentration.

At the same time, the asteroid fragment began to awaken, all the interference devices deployed on it were activated, hundreds of live-fire and laser anti-aircraft weapons all entered alert status, and a large number of metal fragments were released.

On the ship's detection equipment, interference clutter could already be seen near the asteroid fragment, along with various small obstacles, as if it were a battlefield full of wreckage.

But this did not prevent them from using the ship's all-around fire control system, specially modified by the Forge World, to lock onto the target's position, and even determine every point to be attacked.

With everything ready, a low response began to sound on the bridge, along with flashing warning lights, signaling the attack.

"Fire!"

The next second, a torrent of plasma flames was reflected on the ship's hull, and silver-gray missiles, triangular in the front and cylindrical in the back, spewed out from the opened launch bays, like 72 sharp daggers thrown at the target.

Their speed was so great that, with the intense burning of the plasma engines, they quickly traversed the distance of thousands of kilometers.

As these missile clusters approached a certain distance, the originally dead asteroid fragment suddenly boiled over, and dense interception fire composed of lasers and bullets drew a dazzling picture in the void.

The missiles weaved through the dazzling barrage, and in the blink of an eye, several were shattered into pieces.

Through the surrounding compensating detectors, it could be clearly seen that the missiles had begun to perform tactical maneuvers, rapidly approaching their predicted attack points from four directions. It was at this moment that their rear cylindrical engines completely detached in an explosive manner after their final burst, leaving only the triangular front part. At this point, their speed also reached an incredible level, and the four small vector engines began to make final adjustments.

At this distance, the defensive firepower was even denser, and continuous lasers burned a terrifying scar on the missile bodies, before the flames instantly engulfed them.

But it seemed that nothing could stop these daggers from hitting their target.

Of the 72 daggers, 47 were finally transformed into curved streams of fire, rushing towards the dense barrage at a final speed of Mach 60.

The next second, the light net disappeared, and the electromagnetic interference that had not stopped since the launch phase finally subsided.

From afar, incandescent bright spots could be seen appearing on the surface of the asteroid fragment, and the enormous explosive pressure was presented in slow motion.

Just a moment ago, it was merely a fragment the size of a battleship.

But now, the enormous energy generated in an instant turned it into a small sun.

This huge mass of plasma rapidly expanded outwards like a thundercloud, sweeping away all the deployed observation equipment around it, and even the bridge of the ship that launched the missiles was illuminated with a silver light. Then, the plasma burst like soap bubbles, leaving only a spreading scar in the void.

Clap, clap, clap—

On the bridge of the warship at the other end of the void, Sotha Nul gently applauded, and the White Templar company commanders around him, wearing white armor, followed suit.

Soon, applause filled the bridge, stopping only after about ten seconds.

"Director Bangula, it seems that the aeldari's plasma missile technology has been thoroughly understood by you? Your efforts deserve this applause."

Hearing Sotha Nul say this, Bangula smiled and waved for a servo-skull holding a screen to come over, showing a cutaway diagram of the missile's structure.

"Lord Commander, you flatter me. The aeldari are indeed very skilled in plasma technology, and we won't be able to fully understand it in a short time. However, the prototype ideas they provided are very good. I'm not sure if Ryza was being clever or what, but they modified the missile's parameters and the number of engines themselves, and the result was that the speed actually slowed down. We used the original model provided by the aeldari, and made some targeted modifications. We used black iron cores for guidance, which are more flexible and smaller than wetware, so the penetration rate is naturally higher."

"I've seen the power of the Viper missile destroyers, it's quite considerable. The short-term firepower burst is close to that of some heavy cruisers. The manufacturing cost and cycle of the ships are relatively short, the only problem is the missile production."

"We are currently working hard to expand the missile production line, but because there are too many precision components, and the equipment needed for highly compressed plasma is still under construction, but this problem will be solved soon."

"Then let's set a production plan of 12 ships first. These types of ships can only play a role when there are many of them. Let's build a squadron first, then improve them in actual combat while expanding production."

They were on a Dictator-class heavy cruiser, which Ulan Hudah was about to hand over to the Star Knights Chapter. However, when Sotha Nul came last time, some of the interior decorations had not been completed, including the two Luna-class cruisers. By the time he returned from the Royal Court, the three capital ships were completely ready for handover. (Mentioned in Chapter 2328, readers who have forgotten can go back and read it)

Afterwards, Sotha Nul named this Dictator-class the Spinel, and the two Luna-class were named Topaz and Moonstone respectively. This was also the special naming method for the warships that Ulan Hudah would produce for the Chapter in the future—all named after gemstones.

After witnessing the successful application of the Hearthworlder plasma missiles, Sotha Nul waited another week and watched two White Templar exercises. It wasn't because he had nothing to do, but because he was waiting, waiting for a fleet from the Naiten system to arrive.

A week later, this fleet arrived in the Brakato system. It consisted of 3 Galaxy-class transport ships, 1 Goliath-class factory ship, and a dozen escorts and destroyers. The 3 Galaxy-class transport ships carried nearly 500,000 troops and all their weapons and equipment.

Sotha Nul knew that the "integration" between himself and the White Templars was not enough with just training. He needed to truly lead the warriors to fight. At the same time, the auxiliary troops that the Legion had "tempered" for a long time also needed to be brought out for training. In fact, after seeing the armaments of the Aeldari and the T'au, Sotha Nul had some new ideas about the planning and construction of military forces. But he knew that it was useless to just think about it. After all, he personally commanded the Aeldari, and he personally fought the T'au. His views on these two families were all "fought" out. The experience and achievements of other races may not be applicable to humans. The best way is to find a localized characteristic route that belongs to humans through actual combat.

And recently, there just happened to be a target.