The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"You're only taking this many people?"

The bridge, with its various flashing indicator lights and lumen strips, was simply and elegantly designed, and its equipment was highly integrated. It was a hive of activity as Hearthkin in rounded armor and Ironkin with helmets completely covering their faces moved back and forth. The style of this bridge was vastly different from that of a human bridge, especially the expressionless, giant head statues and the niches with burning flames. According to what Wok the Overlord once told Soryan, the Hearthkin regarded their ancestors as the source of all honor and origins, and these head statues represented a certain ancestor.

Soryan had been observing the interior of the Hearthkin ship ever since he boarded. Hearing the voice coming from the right side of his knee, he smiled slightly, turned, and looked down, saying:

"This is a raiding mission, we don't need that many people. Two companies are enough."

The distinguished Captain Barak Byrnoth stood to his right, wearing not only the Hearthkin's characteristic armor but also a set of exoskeletal armor attached below the waist, increasing his height to more than two meters. Although this walking exoskeleton looked a bit like stilts, it had a strange sense of humor.

Even so, it seemed that the distinguished Captain had underestimated Soryan's height. Even with the height-enhancing exoskeleton, he still appeared quite small in front of the other man.

This book is first published on the entire network by 𝕥𝕨𝕜𝕒𝕟.𝕔𝕠𝕞

Therefore, his expression was predictably unpleasant.

However, Soryan was the employer, and he was a hired mercenary. Getting angry or arguing with the employer was a violation of the Alliance's business regulations.

So he could only hold it back, until his entire face turned into granite.

"Well, since you're so confident, I hope everything goes smoothly."

Not long ago, Westeros IV and V had completed their population transfer missions and launched atmospheric incineration torpedoes. However, since the galaxy was already filled with Tyranid bio-ships, a direct withdrawal was impossible. They could only transfer to Westeros III. Fortunately, this world was large enough and, as the galaxy's capital, had a long history and well-developed facilities. The main continent had several very large mountain ranges suitable as strategic strongholds. In addition, there were several ultra-large urban clusters on the planet, not quite at the level of hive cities, but close. Under strict military management, they could accommodate a very large population.

Nearly 20 billion people in the entire galaxy were concentrated on Westeros III. Such a huge bio-signal was undoubtedly an irresistible bait for the Tyranids. They would bite the hook like fish in water.

And that was Soryan's plan. He had to ensure that a large Tyranid fleet would not suddenly appear during the operation. Although it was a raiding mission, he wasn't sure how long it would take, so he had to eliminate as many accidents as possible.

Of course, the defense of the galaxy was equally important. After all, so many lives were at stake. Soryan couldn't make such a huge sacrifice. Perhaps the Inquisitors could easily make the decision, but he couldn't.

Or perhaps the power he possessed gave him the confidence to believe that such a huge sacrifice was unnecessary.

Therefore, most of the legion's warriors were left in the galaxy to assist in the defense of Westeros III, including the entire Imperial Allied Fleet. His defensive strategy was to have the fleet move to the edge of the galaxy, stand by, and contain the Tyranid hive fleet's actions to spread to other areas. Although this was equivalent to sending Westeros III directly into the Tyranids' mouths, the Tyranids' attack mode was special in that their bio-ship weapons rarely participated in attacks on the ground, nor would they deploy any extinction weapons. They would only continuously deploy various organisms to the ground and use some constructs to change the planet's climate.

So even without orbital control, the pressure on the ground would not be too great. The Imperium had some precedents where the ground stubbornly held out until reinforcements arrived, even when the orbit was completely occupied by Tyranid bio-ships.

The only thing to consider was that the Tyranid hive fleet would split off tentacles and attack other directions of the diocese, and this was almost inevitable. According to the data conclusions given by the Adeptus Mechanicus, when the Tyranid cluster density reached a certain level, it was highly likely to split off tentacles to expand the hunting range, and the density of this batch of Tyranids had far exceeded their estimated threshold.

Once the Tyranid fleet dispersed, the Imperium's existing fleet strength would be stretched thin to stop them. The only way was to intercept and interfere with them before they left the galaxy's gravitational field, temporarily "trapping" them in the galaxy.

This task was definitely impossible for the Imperial Fleet alone, even with the addition of the Silent Fleet.

In this situation, although he knew it was a bit risky, Soryan really didn't dare to let the Court's fleet leave. He could only persuade Veronica to return to the Court and let the War Palace and fleet stand by at the edge of the galaxy, on the one hand to attract the Tyranids' attention, and on the other hand to provide support to humanity - although the two sides had not yet established formal contact, Soryan had already announced that as long as the Eldar did not actively attack humans, then they should be left alone, maintaining a tacit understanding and distance. The most core contradiction now was the Tyranids, and the others could be put aside for now.

This wasn't the first time the Imperium's armed forces had engaged in this kind of "silent cooperation" with the Eldar. As long as they didn't speak, both sides would pretend they hadn't seen each other and do their own thing.

Soryan's final arrangement was to transfer fleet command to Malakin. Originally, he had considered Bahram, but the Silent Brotherhood and the representatives of the Ecclesiarchy hoped that someone with a more respected and sacred status could lead the fleet. Letting a Company Captain command the entire fleet was obviously difficult for non-Astartes to understand. After all, whether from seniority, status, or prestige, Bahram could not be said to be a nobody among the Astartes of the Allied Forces, but he could only be considered a minor figure.

In fact, the Ecclesiarchy hoped that Watch Commander Vedrian of the Deathwatch would come forward to preside over the situation, but this Watch Commander insisted on going with Soryan to solve the Tyranid's big trouble, so the Lamenters, who were from the Blood Angels lineage and were relatively harmonious with the Ecclesiarchy, became the best choice.

Although this arrangement had a certain political nature, after all, the composition of the fleet had become complicated now, and the Silent Brotherhood's fleet could even be said to be the main force, so Soryan had to consider the Ecclesiarchy's ideas.

Fortunately, Bahram had also been trained. This time was enough for him to digest and summarize his gains and losses in command. Letting him take on a heavy responsibility again might not be a good thing.

According to Talos, a balance between tension and relaxation is a reasonable path for a person's growth. Many Primarchs pushed themselves too hard, or were pushed too hard by the external environment, which led them to make one mistake after another that they shouldn't have made.

Although there are black malos, Lao Mo still insists on updating for everyone~