The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"This is really strange."

Soshjan stroked his chin, pondering for a moment. He felt this matter was likely related to Grandmaster Ananda. He knew about Rozheim's capabilities; he was indeed more skilled than the average person, but definitely not to this extent.

"I'll ask him when we get back."

"Your Highness, His Majesty has already invited him and those...animal friends to the Royal Court."

"Is that so?"

Soshjan thought for a moment. Rozheim also knew his other identity. Letting him wander around the Royal Court was better than causing trouble in the Chapter. It could be considered a reward for his contribution this time. Besides, there was something he needed to entrust to him.

"Good, good. This attack didn't affect the Royal Court, did it?"

"No, the enemy was annihilated outside the star system."

"Hmm, good that Madam is safe."

"Your Highness...His Majesty is not in the Royal Court."

"What!?"

After listening to the Golden Feather Guard's account, Soshjan immediately frowned and reprimanded, "Nonsense! Utter nonsense! What is Dorar doing? Letting Veronica act recklessly! It's so dangerous here, and the Tyranids are unpredictable enemies. You—"

Seeing the Golden Feather Guard lower his head, speechless under his anger, Soshjan paced back and forth, finally controlling his temper.

"I'm not angry with you, don't take it to heart. Where is Madam now?"

"His Majesty is in the Malansel Palace."

"Go back now and tell Madam to return to the Royal Court as soon as possible. I'll take care of things here."

"Yes."

After the brief meeting with the Golden Feather Guard, Soshjan immediately began to make deployments. First, he gathered the military command of the Ecclesiarchy, mainly the five Knight-Masters of the Silent Knights—of the seven Brotherhoods of the Silent Fleet, Soshjan only brought five, leaving two Brotherhood fleets as reserves and for rear defense.

Even so, the number of Silent Fleet ships heading to support reached a massive 120, coupled with the 19 warships of the Barca Fleet and the 24 ships of support subsequently provided by Zhao-Akada, totaling 163 warships. In addition, there were 200 transport ships and over four million Faith Watch, urgently trained, all armed with weapons and equipment provided by the Ecclesiarchy. Among the lower-level officers were many veterans from MacBain's personal guard, already possessing basic combat capabilities.

At the military conference, Soshjan briefly explained the situation. According to the scan results, the Westeros system was already filled with Tyranid bio-ships. If it weren't for the sudden appearance of the Eldar fleet, it was likely that this place would have already fallen. Even so, the Westeros system was barely holding on. The Imperial fleet seemed to have retreated to the edge of the system, and due to the interference of the Hive Mind, contact had not been made. The three planets with large populations were certainly under a frenzied Tyranid siege.

The subsequent plan was to contact the previous fleet, then prioritize clearing the orbit of one planet and use transport ships to evacuate the people. The second planet would be repeated in the same way, but the third planet would not be like this.

Because it could be determined that this Hive Fleet was the true main force of the Cerberus Hive. So, since its main force was here, the variables that Soshjan had previously worried about regarding the Tyranid Construct's mission to attack Sandheim Five would be reduced. The current task was to drag the Hive Fleet into the system, and as soon as the Hearthguard ships arrived, launch a surprise attack, destroy the Tyranid Construct, and then have plenty of time to slowly deal with these bugs—after all, the unknown enemy was far more terrifying than the enemy in front of him. If that Tyranid Construct really summoned something, it would be a real disaster.

Once the plan was made, it began to be executed. After the tireless efforts of the communication priests, contact was finally made with the Eternal Loyalty. As Soshjan had expected, under the increasing pressure from the Tyranids, he finally had to move the fleet to the edge of the system, and then constantly launch assaults on the planets being landed by the Tyranids, clearing a wave of bio-ships in orbit, then deploying supplies and reinforcements to the ground, and then quickly disengaging, using this method to provide assistance to planetary defense.

But the Eldar fleet was really playing a big role. The strong psychic signal formed by a large number of Eldar gathered together seemed to have an irresistible attraction to the Tyranids. More than 70% of the Tyranid bio-ships went to attack the Eldar fleet in the system. Although in the four days of siege, the Eldar ships, especially the Maelstrom Howlers, were extremely restrained by the Tyranid "swarm" offensive, coupled with the fierce firepower of other Dragonships and Wraithships, no bio-ship was able to get close to Malansel. However, due to their excessive numbers, some ships were damaged or even sunk. Fortunately, the rescue was timely and there were no major personnel losses. The more severely damaged ships also disengaged from the battlefield at the first time, and the Bonesingers team led by Callas Tu performed rapid repairs. This was another reason why the Eternal Royal Court fleet was able to fight for so long—ship repairs were basically calculated in seconds.

However, it was difficult to guarantee that nothing would happen if this continued. Although the Tyranids had lost millions of large and small bio-ships, they had also recovered most of them. Although the Royal Court used a lot of rift weapons to restrain the Tyranids' recovery ability, they were ultimately restrained in consideration of the humans in the system. After all, rift weapons were too uncontrollable, and if something went wrong, the entire system might fall.

In this situation, the mighty Imperial fleet stormed in from the edge, with five gold-plated Emperor-class battleships as the vanguard. The Silent Knights, symbolizing the Ecclesiarchy's Sword of Wrath, charged towards the filthy aliens, heading straight for Westeros Five.

Praise the Emperor, such divine power, ruling all things in the world,

Spread your gracious wings, so holy, always protect me,

What your heart desires, has it not been blessed by the Lord,

According to His will, may your prayers be answered!

Demons surround, evil words and lies!

Though the enemy is cunning, my heart is unmoved!

The sword bears the Lord's grace, the shield protects my soul!

Praise the Emperor, for by Your grace, piety will surely grant us victory.

His wrath is like the sun, victory and defeat will be divided, surely making all enemies lose their courage and flee!

As the fleet launched its charge, hymns from the choir resounded on every Ecclesiarchy ship. The brave and ethereal voices echoed through countless channels, encouraging the morale of every believer. Even the most humble slaves on the lowest decks were now pulling the wrenches in their hands more vigorously.

Then, the deck began to tremble, the Emperor's temples began to roar, and the advanced plasma macro-cannons on both sides of the Emperor-class battleships unleashed rounds of devastating volleys. Those Tyranid bio-ships that were also charging forward shattered and convulsed in the void, dying.

The other ships in the fleet also began to fire in an orderly manner. Although they had not been in actual combat for a long time, it could be seen that the crew members of these warships were very well trained, and the captains basically possessed the corresponding qualities. The most important thing was that they had a cold discipline, a discipline that Soshjan rarely saw even in the Imperial Navy.

This also shows from the side that the Ecclesiarchy is indeed hiding very deeply.