The Emperor’s Angel of Death

“The performance of the Landale is beyond my expectations.”

When Solaryan left the Forge-kin battleship and arrived at the Abyssal-class bridge, he immediately checked the combat records and images from Naysan IV, especially after seeing the Landale destroy a Third Legion battleship with a single shot, he was full of praise.

At this time, company-level personnel in the legion were also basically here, and the reason, of course, was not just to let them visit the new battleship.

“Then let's organize the evacuation. There's no need to entangle with the Tyranids in this star system anymore. That construct has been destroyed. We have time to deal with these aliens slowly. Before, we couldn't delay, but now we can't rush.”

After returning to the Westeros star system, Solaryan immediately counted the battle reports and loss reports. In less than a week of fighting, the Empire lost another 64 warships, including 6 battleships, most of which were from the Silent Fleet, and one Emperor-class was severely damaged and needed to return to port for major repairs. Counting the previous losses, the Empire has lost 181 warships in this star system, which is a loss that even a sector-level can hardly bear.

As for the Tyranids' losses, there is no need to talk about them at all, probably not even one-thirtieth.

The key is that most of them were the achievements of the Eldar warships.

In terms of personnel, during the defense of Westeros III, another 103 fallen warriors were added, bringing the total number of Space Marine casualties to a staggering 724. If you include the 20 Space Knights and 11 Deathwatch who died in the Sandheim V operation, the number reaches an astonishing 755.

In the forty-first millennium, this number is enough to make all the martyr bells of Terra ring seven times.

And the number of legion casualties also rose to 309.

Fortunately, however, the Abyssal-class did not come as an "empty ship." Considering the needs of the battle, and that a new batch of recruits had completed their initial training, Luco brought all 941 recruits from the two transformation bases in the Brakato and Naysan star systems—now the legion recruits a batch of soldiers every year, so since 978.M41, the legion has basically maintained a personnel expansion cycle every year. In order to ensure the quality of personnel and cooperation, Solaryan requires maintaining a rhythm of only transforming a thousand people a year.

The total number of legionnaires before the war was 3703. After the bloody battle and replenishment of troops, the number increased instead of decreasing, reaching 4335. For this reason, Solaryan made some personnel adjustments, allowing some companies to temporarily overstaff by 50% or even double, without temporarily changing the company organization, in order to accommodate the excess warriors.

But the loss is still a loss. So many warriors, many of whom Solaryan watched turn from boys into warriors, and seeing their names on the list of fallen, he felt very sad and guilty.

Some people say that after a long war, people become numb to life and death.

But in fact, this never happens. It's just that the rules of the Astartes require them to always appear tough, especially for commanders. Therefore, Solaryan can also understand the sense of fatigue that Dante shows, not only the heavy responsibility, but also watching the children he personally selected, trained, and led die in battle, which is a very heartbreaking thing.

After experiencing it many times, the heart will not only not become numb, but will become more fragile.

But the retreat is not only because of the losses and changes in the battle situation, but also because of Solaryan's personal reasons.

This is also the first time Solaryan has felt tired and even disgusted with a war.

It is now 983, and they have been in the Archdiocese and the Tyranids for nearly three years. Although the Maelstrom has also been fought for nearly ten years, the battle situation is changing every moment.

In the Archdiocese battle for the past two or three years, Solaryan can be said to have fought with irritability and helplessness. There is no front line, no point to counterattack, and even no enemy to gamble with. There are only endless Tyranid creatures, and now there is no hope or end in sight.

Finally, the Tyranid construct was resolved, but when he came back, he saw such a large pile of enemies. Solaryan even had the idea of simply smashing a bunch of exterminatus orders and destroying the entire Archdiocese, so that the Tyranids would give up their advance.

Of course, it was just a fleeting thought.

To put it bluntly, the current situation of this war is that it should not be lost, but it is also difficult to win. It is also a very typical Imperial war of attrition.

“.Chapter Master, what about the evacuated civilians”

Hearing Bahram's voice, Solaryan turned his head. The tenth company captain seemed to have just returned from the battlefield, covered in dust, and his power armor also had many scratches and wear.

“Evacuate as much as possible. The Ecclesiarchy is carrying a lot of transport ships and giant pilgrim ships, which should be able to take away most people.”

Suddenly, Oscar, who hadn't spoken much, spoke.

“Chapter Master, this time the Tyranids also sent Genestealers and Mind-worms to infiltrate the defended cities and strongholds. Many civilians were bewitched and created riots.”

“Is that so?”

“This is the report.”

Oscar was responsible for defending a mountain city, which was relatively less difficult, but the internal riots were the most serious.

Solaryan took the data slate handed over by Oscar and looked at it for a while, then frowned.

“.It seems they've become smarter, knowing that the defense line is best disintegrated from the inside, but Genestealers can't infect many people in a short time, right?”

Bahram then took over the conversation.

“Most people are coerced. The main reason is that resources are really too tight. No matter how they are deployed—”

Farzad suddenly snorted and retorted:

“What coercion? A bunch of ungrateful dogs. If they eat less, they will bite. I drove them all underground... The damn Mechanicus dug those tunnels too deep.”

Solaryan blinked, turned to look at Bahram, who was the commander of the temporary composite battalion he appointed, and should have a more detailed number.

“About how many people participated in the rebellion incited by the Genestealers?”

“Several cities... Well, it's too hasty to fully count for a while, but the main cities add up to about 300 million... or so.”

Bahram spoke hesitantly, but not because he didn't know, but precisely because he knew.

He had vaguely guessed what might happen.

Solaryan didn't make any comments on this number, but asked:

“What about your Stonehold City?”

“A similar situation also occurred, but overall it is controllable. The rebellion did not spread to the ground. In fact, many people are not really opposed to the Empire. They also know the horror of the Tyranids, but in a relatively oppressive environment, people's emotions may be more likely to become extreme.”

“Ha.”

Ninth Company Captain Tyrsak suddenly chuckled.

“We are not nannies, and we have to take care of the mortals' 'emotions.' The Empire is not a welfare home, and we have to make them live comfortably, right? Rebellion, then they should die, they should be killed!”

His words immediately received the approval of many company captains, but Bahram pursed his lips helplessly.